This Is Your Life
by Isabel5
Summary: Chloe/Oliver. Oliver is starting to stray from the path, can Chloe figure out what's wrong and help him before his actions ruin everything?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own them

Pairing: Chloe/Oliver

Authors Note: This sort of follows the timeline of the show up to the end of Season 7. I wonder off on my own after that, pretending that Season 8 never happened so no Jimmy, no Davis, no freaky Kryptonian brain thing. Also the _Italics_ are memories.

* * *

Chloe pulled the key out of her mailbox absentmindedly as she sorted through a week's worth of bills, adds, and the occasional "You May Already Be A Winner" flyers. A door opened to her left as she tossed envelopes in the trash can. "Good afternoon Ms. Anderson." Chloe looked up and smiled.

"Jessica." She nodded at Chloe walking to her own mailbox. Chloe still wasn't used to the name Jessica yet but she smiled anyway.

"Did Mr. Randall get someone in to fix my water heater?" Chloe stuffed the bills she needed in her bag and threw the rest of the mail away.

"How should I know?" Ms. Anderson scoffed at Chloe and Chloe turned to her and put her hands on her hips.

"You wake up, put on one of your many Elvis Presley records, then sit at that window and watch every person that comes and goes in this building from eight in the morning to ten at night. You know everything." Chloe smiled at her.

Ms. Anderson turned around and grabbed her mail out of her box, ignoring Chloe's statement. "Mrs. Williams from 4D left at nine thirty but Mr. Williams didn't leave until noon, I don't think he's found a new job yet. Peter in 2B had four food deliveries today alone, I think he's up there getting high on the marijuana, it gives you the munchies you know." Chloe smiled at her. "And your cousin got here at three this afternoon but no water heater repair man."

Chloe frowned as Ms. Anderson walked to her room. "My cousin?" She said slowly.

"Yeah, from Alabama, he's in town for some college weekend. He brought some friends with him. Are they all staying with you because Mr. Randall doesn't like that." Ms. Anderson said.

"Uh, no, my aunt got him a hotel room, he's just coming over for dinner." Chloe smiled. "He probably won't even stay long."

"Good. Your cousin seemed nice enough but the other two, they looked like trouble makers." Ms. Anderson shut her door and Chloe knew that she was going back to her perch in front of the window.

Chloe waited until she heard the first strands of Love Me Tender before reaching in her bag and feeling around until she found what she was looking for, the gun that Oliver forced her to carry. Normally she hated it, walking around all day knowing it was in her bag, the extra weight it literally and figuratively put on her constantly, but right now she was glad she logged in all those hours at the shooting range. As she made her slow climb up the stairs she could hear Peter blasting Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon, she had a fleeting thought that Ms. Anderson was right, Peter probably was stoned.

"Hey." Peter's door flew open and he frowned. "Oh Jessica, it's just you. Thought you were the pizza guy."

"Just me." Chloe shrugged as she relaxed her grip on the gun.

"Bummer." Peter said walking back to his apartment and closing the door. Chloe shook her head and continued her climb. She listened carefully as she approached and paused, checking the hall before taking the gun out. She dropped the bag on the ground and reached for the knob, but the door was open. She nudged it with the toe of her boot and it opened further. She could hear faint whispers from the living room but nothing distinguishable. As she passed into the hallway she saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned on the spot, gun raised and cocked. She let out a sigh of relief as she realized she was aiming the gun at her own reflection in the hall mirror. She sighed, she still wasn't used to the red hair. She continued down the hall slowly until she got to the end and then turned into the room with the gun raised.

"Holy shit Chloe, watch where you're pointing that thing." Bart jumped off the couch as quickly as only Bart could and Chloe lowered the gun with a groan.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" She put the safety back on her gun and slid it in the back of her waistband. "You guys aren't supposed to come here." She said moving further into the room, noticing that Victor wouldn't even turn away from the window and AC was avoiding her gaze.

"We had to." Victor said, his back still to her, his gaze fixed on an arbitrary point somewhere across the bay. "We've got a problem."

Chloe's knees suddenly felt weak as she sunk down on the corner of the coffee table. "Oliver?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Victor suddenly turned around, his expression falling as he shook his head. "He's fine…well he's not dead."

"Hurt?" Chloe asked.

"No." AC spoke for the first time. "But something's wrong."

Chloe looked carefully between the three men and frowned. "What's going on?"

"He fired us." Victor stood up and started pacing around the room.

"He…what?" Chloe looked up in confusion. "He fired you?"

"Yeah." Bart nodded. "Yesterday, called us all into his office, told us our services were no longer needed and thanked us for our help."

"But that doesn't make any sense." Chloe shook her head. "He can't fire you, he can't…I don't understand."

"That makes four of us." AC chimed in. "We were working on a big project. He said he'd found out something huge, something to do with Lex and when he knew more, we'd be in for the biggest mission of our lives. He wouldn't tell us anything, had us on all these random recon missions and then he started acting strange."

"It was that Green Arrow imposter." Bart piped up and looked at Chloe questioningly; she nodded to let him know that she knew what he was talking about. "He hasn't been the same since that and then he just fired us."

Chloe sighed and looked at the stack of papers on her dining room table. The Green Arrow imposter was a guy who decided the best way to mask his criminal activities was to pretend that he was the Green Arrow, had his very own suit and everything. It was a minor annoyance to start with, he would break into places, steal things, but the press always thought of Green Arrow as a thief anyway, then things changed. He'd killed someone, in plain view of a witness, in full Green Arrow regalia and the few people of Star City who were still on the Green Arrow's side turned against him, branded him a monster, a killer.

"Has he talked to you?" Victor asked. "Has he…fired you?"

"Of course he didn't fire her." AC scoffed. "He's not gonna fire his girlfriend."

"I'm not his…" Chloe shook her head. "No not yet, look I don't know what's going on, and I promise you I will figure this out, I will fix things but you guys really can't be here ok? Not when Lex is still looking for me."

Victor nodded. "We're leaving." He said. "You know we wouldn't have come unless it was really important."

"I know, I'll figure it out, I swear, just lay low somewhere for a while, I'll be in touch." Chloe smiled.

"Thanks." Bart smiled and the three of them left the apartment, leaving Chloe alone, confused, and not really sure what to do except the one thing Oliver told her never to do. She went back into the hall, grabbed her bag and pulled out her phone to buy a ticket on the next flight to Star City.

* * *

Oliver walked into his living room and threw his towel on the chair a little more forcefully than he really needed to. He'd hoped his workout would have calmed him down a little but it didn't work. "That chair do something to do?" Chloe asked from her perch on his couch.

Oliver looked over at her and then turned away. "I like the red." He said absentmindedly then he turned back to her. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Yeah, well you're not supposed to go around firing people randomly so I guess we're all acting out of character." Chloe stood up and Oliver scoffed.

"I didn't fire people randomly." Oliver said. "I fired Bart, AC, and Victor. I'm closing JL Industries."

Chloe looked at him quizzically JL Industries was the company Chloe had set up for Oliver to fund their extracurricular activities. "Really? Well if that's the case why didn't you fire me?"

Oliver turned to her. "You want me to fire you?"

"I don't want you to fire anyone, I want to know what the hell is going on here." Chloe walked over to him. "What do you mean you're closing down JL Industries."

"It's not a complicated concept to grasp Chloe, I'm shutting it down, all of it, the Green Arrow, the stupid team, the costumes and the crime fighting, I'm done, I'm out." Oliver walked into his bedroom and Chloe followed him.

"You're out?" She called after him. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." Oliver nodded, his voice showing annoyance.

"So never mind the countless people that are relying on you, all the people left in Lex's 33.1 labs. Never mind AC, Victor, and Bart, what are they supposed to do now?"

Oliver laughed humorlessly. "Why is that my problem?" He snapped at her, slapping the counter in his bathroom and turning to her. "Why am I the one that has to deal with Lex, that has to pick up the pieces when he decides to play God? I don't want to be the hero Chloe, I don't want to spend my nights roaming the streets alone, saving people who are ungrateful, or not saving them at all. I'm tired of being one step behind Lex. For every 33.1 that we tear down, he builds four. For every person we rescue from him, he takes two more. I bust my ass for this city and what do I get for my trouble?" He grabbed a newspaper from the day before and threw it at her.

The headline read "Citizen's Call for Green Arrow's Arrest." She sighed and dropped it on the bed. "They'll catch the guy, everything will come out, and in three months no one will even remember it and you know that, just like the time three years ago when Metropolis turned against Superman when they thought he was secretly leading the mob. But when Lois finally broke the Bizzaro Superman story the city forgave him. They'll forgive you."

"I don't need to be forgiven." Oliver laughed. "I haven't done anything wrong and why am I the one that has to lead the pack? When did I become personally responsible for every freaking sad sap on the face of this earth?"

"When you put on that costume." Chloe walked up to him. "When you formed a team, recruited people to your cause, got them to believe in you."

"Jokes on them then huh." He smiled angrily at her.

"No. Jokes on me." Chloe shook her head. "Cause I bought into it, the whole thing, truth, justice and the American way and possibly a dental plan. I gave up everything to follow you, my whole life Oliver. So what am I supposed to do now?"

"I didn't fire you Chloe but I'm really close to reconsidering that decision." He smiled at her.

"Don't worry about that because I quit." She stormed out of the room, grabbed her bag and slammed the door. "That insufferable, infuriating…" She paced in the hallway for a few minutes and then turned back around and opened the door storming back into the apartment. She threw her bag on the kitchen bar and walked back into his bedroom. "And another thing…" She looked around the bedroom and frowned, Oliver wasn't in there. She was startled for a second until she heard the shower running. While the anger was still giving her momentum she walked into the bathroom and flung the shower curtain open.

Oliver turned around, soap in his eyes startled. "You're showering?" Chloe screamed.

"Obviously." Oliver spit water out of his mouth.

"We're arguing, we weren't finished, you can't just get in the shower in the middle of an argument." Chloe pointed out.

"You left." Oliver pointed out. "You quit and then you stormed out, slamming the door." Oliver motioned to the door. "Which you're more than welcome to do again, right now, although I'd appreciate it if you didn't slam the door this time."

"I'm not done yet." Chloe snapped at him.

Oliver groaned and turned off the water. "Towel?" Chloe grabbed the towel and then handed it to him. He wrapped it around his waist and then motioned for her to continue, she looked confused and he rolled his eyes. "You weren't finished." He reminded her.

"Right, so, another thing." Chloe started pacing back and forth. "You fire everyone and then you dismantle the company that I spent months setting up for you and then you get over your temper tantrum and decide you want to play the masked hero again, but by then we've moved on. So we're supposed to come crawling back to you? How is that fair, how are we supposed to know you're not just gonna get another wild hair in two months or three months or say you last a year even, then you decide to quit again, you just gonna string us along like a yo-yo?"

"This isn't a temper tantrum Chloe, it isn't a wild hair. It's not something that I just decided on a whim and I can guarantee you there will be no coming back." Oliver assured her.

"So what? You're just going to go back to your normal life? Your pre-Green Arrow life?" Chloe asked him.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I am." Oliver said.

"So I guess I can expect great things from Oliver Queen then." Chloe snorted. "They'll be multiple women and tabloid stories of your drunken binges in hotel fountains. You'll be blowing off work to surf in Australia, or spending ridiculous amounts of money on cars you'll probably wreck in some stupid stunt to impress some airhead model."

"That's what you think of me?" Oliver laughed and shook his head. "Nice to know. Although after years of unappreciated service to this town, I think I deserve some fun don't you. I haven't been able to have a real date in seven years, one single night without a crisis, I can't keep a girlfriend because I keep too many secrets. You keep talking about what Green Arrow does for other people, did you ever think about what it does to me? I deserve to be happy too."

"No, I used to think you were the one good guy in this whole crazy privileged, too much money for your own good crowd. I thought you were the one guy who could actually use his power and position to have some sort of positive influence on the world. I guess I was wrong." She turned to go. "Have your fun Oliver, live your life, worry only about you. I hope it makes you happy. I'm done now." She walked out of the bathroom and Oliver leaned his head against the wall as the door slammed again.

* * *

Chloe walked for thirty blocks before she was calmed down enough to look at the situation rationally. She found a coffee stand and ordered a large cup. She found a bench and sat down going over the whole argument in her head. She'd gone into that apartment assuming everything was a misunderstanding and if she talked to Oliver she would sort the whole thing out. She didn't expect him to admit that he fired every one, she didn't expect him to say he was quitting and dismantling the whole organization and she just snapped. Now that she could sit back and look at the whole thing logically she realized something was wrong with Oliver. Something had pushed him off his path and Chloe had to fix this, had to stop this before, well before he did actually end up wrecking some overpriced car trying to impress some airhead model.

She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hey Victor, yeah I just talked to him." Chloe sighed. "No, something's wrong but I think I can fix it. I know a guy." Chloe smiled at something and laughed. "Yeah, I'll give him a call. Get the guys and give me a few hours."

* * *

Oliver finished his shower, flipping the hot water to cold to try and clear his head. Chloe's words echoed in his ears. "When you got them to believe in you." He banged his fists against the tile of the wall and sighed, he'd made his choice, it was done now. He turned off the water and grabbed his towel climbing out of the shower. He didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want to hurt Chloe especially. He pulled on an undershirt and walked to his bedroom. He needed to stop thinking about this, he needed to get drunk. Maybe he'd start being Oliver Queen billionaire playboy again. He pulled out his phone and called up a few of his old friends. "Hey Mike, what's going on? Yeah I know it's been a while, works been…I just need to let off some steam. Margo and Sasha, perfect, I'll meet you in ten." He hung up the phone and got dressed.

* * *

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Bart paced back and forth in Oliver's living room looking uncomfortable.

"It's the only idea." Victor said and Chloe shot him a look. "But it's also a good idea."

"It'll work." Chloe said. The elevator dinged and AC jumped. "Relax, Oliver's still at Mirror, I got a call from that tabloid photographer friend of mine, said the way he was throwing them back, he'd probably be there for a while." Chloe nodded to the elevator. "That's my guy."

"Who is this guy anyway?" Victor asked.

The elevator grate opened up and a guy walked in looking around in astonishment. "Fancy digs Elizabeth." He nodded at Chloe in approval.

"Elizabeth?" Bart asked her.

"One of my many names." Chloe cringed. "It's Chloe remember."

"Right." He nodded.

"Mark, thanks for coming." Chloe smiled and shook his hand.

"Dude, you saved my life, how could I not come?" He pulled his bag off his shoulder and laid it on the table. "So how can I be of service? Need to relive your childhood? Want to see the future?"

"No, it's not for me." Chloe assured him. "It's for a friend, he'll be here in a little while, I just want to go over everything, how it's going to play out." Mark just nodded as he sat down.

* * *

Oliver stumbled into the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse. It had taken him far longer than he thought it would to get rid of that girl, Rachel? Rhonda? Whatever her name was. He'd forgotten how tiring being the playboy was, staying up all night, drinking too much and then having to go into work the next day. It was almost enough to make him miss the Green Arrow, almost. He winced as he brought a hand up to touch his cheek. Apparently you can take the man out of the suit but you can't take the suit out of the man, it must have been instinct that took him into that alley. He couldn't just ignore the scream when he was walking home and when he saw the man trying to rob the woman in the alley he'd rushed in without a second thought. He grabbed his side wincing and knew he'd have to get out the first aid kid right away. The elevator door opened and he stumbled into the living room only stop when he saw Chloe standing there. "I really don't want to fight with you again."

"Good." Chloe stood up and nodded somewhere behind him. "Because I didn't come here to argue."

"Sorry about this." Bart said from the shadows. "But really, you didn't give us a choice." He shrugged as arms grabbed Oliver from either side and he turned to find Victor and AC holding his arms.

"Trust me dude, this won't hurt you a bit." A guy who he didn't know walked out of the shadows behind Bart and touched Oliver's forehead and he immediately went limp in Victor and AC's arms. "Bring him to the couch. He might as well be comfortable." Mark said. They carried Oliver to the couch and laid him down. Mark moved to the chair next to him and sat down, getting himself comfortable. "Once I go in, don't touch him, don't move him, don't do anything, it could have unwanted consequences."

"Like what?" Bart asked.

"I don't know." Mark looked over at him. "Because people always follow the rules." He said pointedly.

"Got it." Bart nodded and backed away.

"I'm going in." Mark said and closed his eyes.

* * *

**Oliver's Head**

Oliver spun around the apartment, it was completely empty, he wasn't that drunk right? He hadn't imagined the whole thing had he? Chloe, Bart, AC, Victor, and some guy he'd never met had been in his apartment when he got home, but now they were nowhere to be seen. "You aren't going crazy." Oliver spun around and looked behind him. That guy was not there two seconds ago. "You need to calm down for a second ok, just relax and I'll explain everything."

"Who the hell are you? Where am I?" Oliver asked cautiously. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well, that's what I meant when I said I'd explain everything. I'm a friend of Elizabeth's." Mark said and Oliver looked at him confused. "Sorry, Chloe. I'm a…what did she call us…Meta, I've got meteor powers."

"Ok." Oliver said, getting his breathing under control. "What kind of powers?"

"You every read a Christmas Carol?" Mark asked calmly.

"In like the tenth grade." Oliver shook his head.

"It's sort of like that." Mark shrugged. "Only I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future all wrapped into one. I can show you your past, your present and your possible future, depending on the path you decide to take."

"The path I decide to take?" Oliver asked confused.

"That is what I said." Mark nodded.

"I'll tell you the path I want to take, whatever path leads me the hell out of here." Oliver yelled at him.

"No can do, sorry." Mark shrugged. "Once I start, I can't stop until you learn what you need to learn."

"This is just freaking great." Oliver sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "This is exactly what I need right now."

"You ready to get started?" Mark rubbed his hands together.

"Do I have a choice?" Oliver sighed.

"No, not really." Mark smiled. "Ok Oliver Queen, this is your life."


	2. Chapter 2

Before Oliver could ascertain what exactly was about to happen, the apartment blurred around him and then started to spin wildly. He was sure he was gonna throw up until Mark laid a hand on his arm and steadied him some. When the room stopped spinning Oliver leaned over and tried to catch his breath. "Nice warning."

"I forget what it's like for other people." Mark smiled sheepishly at him. "Oh, where are we?"

"Don't you know?" Oliver glared at him.

"I don't know everything, I'm just a guide of sorts." Mark shrugged. "So where are we?"

Oliver stood up straight and took a good look around the room and froze. "We're…at my old house." He took two steps forward and tried to run his hand along the back of the couch only his hand went right through. He turned around to Mark confused.

"We're just here to observe." Mark shrugged. "We're only in a memory, we can't affect the scene in any way. So tell me about this place."

"It's the Queen house. It's a little outside of Star City. I lived here until my parents….until I went off to boarding school." He walked around the living room. "Lilies." He smiled at the bouquet on the entryway table. "They were my mom's favorite."

"Did you sell the place?" Mark looked around.

"What?" Oliver turned around confused.

"Did you sell the place?" Mark asked again.

"No, I still own it." Oliver said.

"But you don't live there?" Mark inspected the pictures on the fireplace mantle.

"I work in the city, its closer." Oliver shrugged.

"Huh?" Mark nodded.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Oliver glared at him.

"Nothing." Mark threw up his hands in surrender.

Oliver was about to say something when he heard a sound he hadn't heard in a while. It was laughter coming from the other side of the house.

"_Ollie…" A female voice said before walking into the room. "Come out come out where ever you are." She laughed again as she crept into the room. _

"Mom?" Oliver reached out a hand to touch her and it went right through her. "Mom, I'm right here." Oliver said more urgently.

"Oliver." Mark looked at him sadly. "You can't talk to her, it's just a memory."

Oliver looked between Mark and his mom and then coughed to clear his throat.

"_Come on Oliver, our plane leaves in two hours and you're going to be late for school." She stood in the middle of the room looking around. "Oliver Jonas Queen, come out right this instant." She yelled through the room and looked around. _

"_Missing someone?" A tall man walked into the living room, a young Oliver slung over his back. "I caught him trying to fit in my suitcase." The man dumped the young boy on the couch and smiled down at him. "Come on kiddo." Robert Queen walked around the couch and sat down next to Oliver. _

"_I don't want you to leave." Oliver pouted. "You just got back." _

"_It's just a short trip Ollie." Laura Queen sat on his other side. "We'll be back in two weeks, in enough time to take you out trick or treating." She nudged him in the ribs. _

"_Trick or treating is for babies." Oliver crossed his arms over his chest. _

_Laura looked over Oliver's head to Robert. "Ok then, no trick or treating." _

"_Why can't I go with you guys?" Oliver said. _

_  
"It's a business trip kiddo." Robert smiled at him. "And you've got school." _

_  
"But it's going to be my business someday isn't it? Don't you think my time would be better spent learning how to run the company?" Laura raised an eyebrow and Robert laughed. _

_  
"You've got plenty of time to learn how to run the company." Robert assured him. "Right now you need to go to school, be a kid, and go trick or treating yeah?" Oliver pouted again. "Come on, I know you think its lame, but do it for your mom?" _

"_Fine." Oliver finally sighed. _

_  
"Grab your school bag, we'll drop you on the way to the airport." Laura ruffled his hair and he ducked out from under her to go get his bag. "He's growing up too fast." Laura said to Robert. "Remember when all he cared about was trick or treating?"_

"_Yeah." Robert stood up. "What was all that stuff about running the company?" He ran his hand through his hair. _

"_I think that was just a lame excuse to get out of school." Laura laughed and the scene froze. _

"What happened?" Oliver turned to Mark. "Bring them back."

"I can't, that's all you remember." Mark shrugged. "What was so important about today?"

"Nothing." Oliver said gruffly walking closer and studying his mother's smiling face.

"Hate to break it to you kiddo, if we see it, it's important." Mark smiled at him.

"Don't call me kiddo." Oliver snapped. "Only my dad called me that." Mark nodded and Oliver turned back to the scene. "This was the last time I saw them." He stared at his mom. "They dropped me off at school, two hours later they boarded a plane and then…" Oliver trailed off.

"Then what?" Mark looked around as the room started to spin. Suddenly they weren't in Oliver's old house, they were somewhere else.

"No." Oliver shook his head when he got his bearings. "No, stop this, take us out." He screamed at Mark who just shrugged and looked around.

They were in a school, the name on the uniform jackets said Excelsior Academy. The teacher was sitting behind his desk reading the paper as the kids all took a test of some sort. "History." Oliver said looking down at his paper. "I did not study for this test." He shook his head looking around. "I remember wishing that something would happen, a fire drill, hell an actual fire, something that would get me out of it." He laughed humorlessly.

_The teacher flipped a page in his paper, the silence in the classroom making the sound of the paper almost deafening. Another sound started in the background, a sort of rhythmic clicking, getting closer and closer, high heels on tile floors. There was a small knock at the door and the teacher stood up and opened it. A woman was on the other side whispering something to the teacher. _

"_Oliver, put your test down, the principal needs to speak to you." He said quietly. _

"_Oh, Ollie's in trouble." A few kids snickered and hooted at him. _

"_Everyone else, back to work." The teacher snapped and Oliver got out of his desk and walked to the door. Mark and Oliver followed as the Principal led him down the hall and sat him on a bench. She squatted down in front of him and placed a hand on his knee. _

"She's telling me that my parents are dead." Oliver put his hands in his pockets. "She just kept repeating it, over and over for some reason and I remember thinking to myself that she was really bad at this, delivering bad news. She wasn't comforting or even informative, she just kept saying, "The plane went down, they're dead". Who breaks the news to a ten year old like that?" Oliver shook his head.

"She did her best." Mark offered and Oliver snorted.

"So what? This moment defined my whole life, is this what you're saying?" Oliver turned to him.

"I'm sure it had an impact, but if I've learned anything in doing this, it's that there's no one moment that defines anyone." Mark shrugged. "It's what we do about all the little moments that define us."

"Wow, that so profound." Oliver rolled his eyes. "So where are we going now?" Oliver asked. "My first date? The night I lost my virginity?"

"I don't choose where we go, you do." Mark told him.

"I did not choose to come here." Oliver snapped at Mark.

"Ok, whatever." Mark said as the room started to spin and they were moving again. "So you're not taking us here either?" He looked around. "Where is here?" There was ocean as far as the eye could see and loud music coming from somewhere.

"My boat." Oliver smiled for a second looking around the yacht with fondness.

"Ollie, Ollie, Ollie!" People were chanting in the other room and Mark inclined his head, motioning that they should go investigate.

They simply passed through all the people in the room until they got to the front. "That you?" Mark smirked as a nineteen year old Oliver stood in front of the bar on the boat, a bar that was currently holding a half naked girl who was looking at him expectantly.

"Yeah." Oliver actually blushed as he watched his younger self

_Oliver grabbed a lemon and slipped it in the mouth of the girl, then leaned down and licked a line from her belly button to just under her breasts. The crowd cheered as he sat up and shook salt on her stomach. She smiled at him as he leaned back down to lick up the salt. She handed him a shot glass and he downed it quickly before leaning forward to grab the lemon from her mouth. When his lips hit the lemon she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss as the crowd screamed again. _

"Pretty cool party." Mark smiled as the younger Oliver tried to pull away from the girl.

"Not for long." Oliver sighed glancing at the spot light that was sweeping over the room through the windows. Oliver nodded out the window and Mark saw a boat sliding up alongside his yacht. "Pirates." Oliver said as the window behind the bar shattered, taking all the bottles with it and spraying the crowd with liquor and glass.

_Everyone went crazy and started running in all directions as automatic gunfire pierced the air. Oliver reached over and grabbed the woman off the bar and carried her out of the way as she screamed in horror. There were cuts all over her body from the broken bottles and people kept bumping into them. "Can you walk?" Oliver asked her and she nodded. He set her down and Oliver grabbed her hand as he pulled her out of the room. On his way he had to force himself not to look at the dead bodies he was steeping over to get out of there. He heard a grunt and then felt dead weight yank at his arm and watched in horror as the girl from the bar, the girl whose name he never bothered to ask, fell dead from a gunshot wound. He stopped horrified but started moving again when a bullet hit him in his thigh. _

"What's going on?" Mark asked looking around at the chaos.

"I never found out for sure." Oliver said. "I know my captain was in on it. I'm not sure if they just wanted to boat, if they wanted me, if they wanted money, I don't know." He nodded in the other direction and Mark turned to see Oliver climb in the life raft on the side of the boat and pull a knife out of his pocket to cut the ropes. The gunshots were fewer and farther between now and Mark guessed that was because there were fewer people to shoot at.

"But you got away." Mark pointed out as the life boat hit the water and Oliver grabbed for a paddle to row with.

"If you want to call it that." Oliver shrugged as the scene spun around them and they were somewhere else.

"Nice place." Mark smiled walking up the beach. "Tropical."

Oliver snorted as he looked around the place he swore on his life he would never set foot in again. "Yeah tropical." Oliver said.

"You vacation here or something?" Mark looked around confused.

"Not exactly." Oliver nodded behind Mark and he turned to see the semi lifeless body of Oliver lying on the beach. "Washed up here after two days in that life boat." They watched as the body on the ground slowly started to move and Oliver heaved himself up until he was standing. He took in his surroundings as he stumbled along the beach. They watched as Oliver stopped frozen.

"What are you looking at?" Mark stepped over a few rocks and made his way over to where the younger Oliver was standing transfixed.

Oliver followed behind him and all three stood and looked at the wreckage in front of them. "That would be my parent's plane." Oliver said squinting in the sun. "Funny thing was, I took that trip as a sort of symbol. It was supposed to be a goodbye to my parents, I never expected that to be literal." They watched as the younger Oliver stumbled forward and slapped his hands to the side of the plane, using his sleeve to wipe the dirt and sand from something on the side. When he finished he stepped back to revel the Queen Industries logo.

"You actually found your parents plane wreckage?" Mark looked at him astonished.

"I know." Oliver laughed. He never thought he'd be able to laugh at this situation, but when Mark pointed it out that way Oliver saw the comedy of the situation. Mark chuckled and soon they were both laughing. They stopped when the younger Oliver climbed out of the plane dragging something behind him. Oliver coughed and turned away.

"What's going on?" Mark asked looking between the younger Oliver and the current Oliver.

"Those are my parent's bodies." Oliver said, a little crack in his voice. "I buried them properly."

"That's really nice." Mark said quietly.

"Yeah." Oliver coughed. "Yeah, we've seen everything aren't we supposed to be spinning around now?" Oliver turned around.

"What do I know?" Mark shrugged. "This isn't my trip."

"I don't want to watch this whole thing over." Oliver said as he watched himself grab a piece of the plane and start digging a hole.

"Yeah, maybe you need to." Mark told him. So they sat and they watched as Oliver dug through the night and well into the morning light until he finally laid his parents remains in the hole and then filled it in again. He fashioned a makeshift cross from a few branches and placed it in the ground as he closed his eyes for a second. The scene started to spin and Mark smiled. "Now we can go."

"Great." Oliver sighed in relief, but they didn't go far. When everything stopped spinning they were still on the island. "Just great." He rolled his eyes. "I didn't like the time I spent on this island in the first place, now I have to re-live the whole thing."

"Nah, probably just the highlights." Mark smiled at him.

Oliver watched himself as his memories sifted through his time at the island. Fashioning his first bow, learning how to use it properly, then finally mastering it. "Are we almost done here?" Oliver asked as they watched him hunt a boar through the forest. "All this moving around is making me dizzy."

"This is important." Mark pointed out. "This is where you became who you were to become."

Oliver looked over at Mark and rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He said as an arrow flew through the forest, missing all the trees and landing square in the boar, killing it with the first hit. "You have no idea of the man I've become." Oliver shook his head and suddenly the place spun again and when they stopped it was obvious they weren't on the island any longer. They were in an alley.

Mark looked a little confused. "This isn't right. We weren't supposed to get to this time yet."

"I thought you didn't know what was going on?" Oliver turned to him. "I thought you didn't have any control over this."

"I don't." Mark said. "I don't control where we go, but I know the basic progression of the trip. We weren't supposed to be here yet, but if we're here, it's for a reason." Mark said nodding to the front of the alley as a woman approached.

The woman seemed scared and out of place. She kept looking around like a scared cat, waiting for someone to pop out of the shadows. She pulled the trench coat tighter around her chest as she hurried in to the alley. "The trench coats a nice touch. What is this? Boris and Natasha? Spy versus Spy?"

"Shut up." Oliver snapped. "She was nervous."

"Sorry." Mark threw his hands up and took a step back.

"I don't want to watch this." Oliver said. "Get me out of here."

"I can't dude." Mark said.

"You know more than you said you did, you know more about this place than I do, this is your stupid power get me the hell out of here." Oliver screamed.

"You really should calm down." Mark warned him as Oliver fumed.

"Fine I'll do it myself somehow." Oliver closed his eyes and thought as hard as he could about anything but this place.

"That's not gonna work." Mark whispered basically to himself.

* * *

Chloe frowned and jumped up. "What's going on with him?" She ran over to the couch and Bart looked over jumping up.

"Holy crap, is this supposed to happen?" He looked down at Oliver, who had sweat pouring from his forehead, his whole body shaking.

"I don't know." Chloe shook her head. "I've only seen one of these before. It didn't happen that time."

"Maybe it's because of the alcohol." AC said. "He was kind of drunk, was the other guy drunk?"

"No, I don't' think so." Chloe shook her head. "Oh God." She pointed to his shirt where a small dot of blood was slowly forming.

"You have to help him." Victor said to Chloe. "Stop this, use your power."

"I have to touch him to do that, Mark said not to touch him." Chloe looked up.

"You want to break Mark's rules or you want Oliver to die?" Victor looked at her.

"Ok." Chloe nodded her head. "Ok." She grabbed Oliver's shirt and pulled it up. "Oh God." She saw the undershirt he'd made into a makeshift bandage covering the wound on his abdomen. "Damn it, why didn't he say anything." She pulled the shirt off and blood started pouring out.

"Chloe." AC said scared.

"I got it, don't worry." Chloe laid her hands down on Oliver's chest slowly and the guys watched as a white seemed to spill out of them. Chloe felt the familiar tug that happened when she healed someone, then she felt an unfamiliar tug. She was fading quickly and not like she normally did. Her only thought was that she hadn't finished healing Oliver.

"What happened?" Bart asked as the light faded and Chloe slumped against the ground. "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know." Victor said astonished. AC leaned forward and gingerly lifted Chloe's hand and let it drop.

He turned around and shrugged. "She's breathing." He said. "She's just, out, like Oliver."

"Ok, but what the hell happened?" Bart asked and Victor and AC looked over at him exasperated.

**

* * *

**

Oliver's Head

Chloe opened her eyes and looked around, trying to get her bearings. "What the hell just happened?" She watched as Oliver dressed as the Green Arrow talked to a woman in an alley way.

"I was gonna ask you the same question." Mark said from behind her.

"Chloe?" Oliver looked at her confused.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked each of them.

"You tell me." Mark said. "What did you do?"

"I was healing Oliver's wound, by the way would it have been too hard to say 'Hang on just a sec, I've been stabbed' or something?" Chloe glared at Oliver.

"Even in my own head she nags me." Oliver mumbled under his breath.

"You used your powers on him?" Mark asked.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded.

"Huh, that's interesting." Mark nodded and leaned back to think for a minute.

"So what's going on?" Chloe asked him finally.

"You don't really know much about how your power works do you?" Mark asked her and Chloe shook her head. "When you heal someone, you merge with them, you go into them and become them for a while. When you went into Oliver, it brought you here." Mark looked thoughtful for a second and then smiled. "This is good actually, useful."

"Useful?" Oliver asked confused.

"Your destinies are intertwined." He said. "Didn't you know that?"

"No." Chloe shook her head.

"Really?" Mark said confused. "I knew it the first time I met you." He shrugged. "So then, let's carry on."

"No." Oliver shook his head. "I don't want her here, I don't want her rooting around in my head. These are private memories." Oliver pointed out.

"I told you not to get upset, it probably made your wound worse." Mark smiled at him. "What's done is done, you just have to deal with it."

"I never meant for this to happen." Chloe told Oliver apologetically. "I'm really sorry."

"You did this?" Oliver asked her. "You brought him here, brought him here do this to me."

"Yes." Chloe nodded. "To get you back on the right path."

Oliver laughed. "How is that your decision to make? What path I'm on?"

"Since you weren't making it." Chloe glared at him. "I figured someone should." She looked around confused. "What is this place?" She asked as Oliver pulled himself up out of the alleyway on a zip line and the woman looked back and forth across the street before walking away.

"It's nothing." Oliver said. "Let's get this show on the road. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get out of here. So what? We go back to the island?"

"No we're finished with the Island." Mark shook his head.

"So where then?" Oliver asked.

"Somewhere else." Mark smiled and the scene started to swirl and spin as they moved to another memory.

Chloe grabbed onto Oliver's arm as the memory fell into place. "A little warning about the spinning would have been awesome."

Oliver helped her stand upright and she turned to the scene in front of her and froze. "Holy crap you're naked." She turned around quickly a blush rising to her cheeks.

Oliver snorted. "That didn't stop you from busting in on me in the shower yesterday." He pointed out.

"I was angry and I didn't even realize…" Chloe trailed off. "Holy crap you were naked yesterday weren't you?"

"Yes." Oliver nodded, a small smile at the corner of his mouth.

"He's got pants on now." Mark called to them and they turned to see Oliver standing in front of a dresser and take a deep breath before opening it.

"Oh god." Oliver smiled slightly. "This is my first time suiting up." He turned back to Chloe. "My first trip out at Green Arrow. God, I was petrified."

"You look pretty calm." Chloe pointed out.

"Yeah well if we'd come in five minutes ago, we would have seen me throwing up my diner." He smiled. "I bagged three purse snatchers and a car thief."

"Good night." Chloe said absentmindedly as Oliver finished putting on his suit.

"Yeah it was." He coughed. "But that's in the past." He said pointedly.

"That's why we're here." Mark said. "How did it feel?"

"What are you a shrink now?" Oliver scoffed.

"Sort of." Mark smiled at him. "How did it feel? Putting on that suit? Stopping the bad guys?"

"It felt good." Oliver admitted. "Until I read the paper the next day. While I was stopping the purse snatcher and the car thief, a guy killed three people in the park."

"You can't save everyone Oliver." Chloe said to him quietly.

"I can't save anyone." He mumbled under his breath and Chloe glared at him. "I was doing some good but not enough."

"And that's when you decided you needed to do more?" Mark pointed out. "You needed a team. You can't save the world alone."

"I didn't decide I needed a team." Oliver said. "It just happened." Oliver shrugged as the memory swirled again and they were standing outside this time, by a small outdoor café.

"Where is this?" Chloe looked around confused.

"Down town Star City." Oliver moved closer. "This is…this is the first time I saw Bart." He smiled and Chloe looked around confused. "I'm there." He pointed down the street and Chloe saw him.

_Oliver paid the news agent and turned to go back to the penthouse when a shot of red caught his eye. When he followed the blur to its resting place he was surprised to find a young man skulking behind a car eyeing the counter of a local Mexican food stand with far too much interest. _

"And that's Bart." Oliver pointed out.

_Oliver stood and watched intently as he seemed to gauge something, as if he was counting, then there was a red blur again, and the food the waiter had just set down was gone, and so was the boy. Oliver smiled. _

"He just stole that food." Chloe said shocked.

"Yeah, he did it every night for a week, I kept watching him." Oliver smiled at the memory.

"What did you do?" Chloe asked.

Oliver smiled as the scene around them spun and whirled until it was different.

_Oliver was in the same spot he'd been in the past two nights and yet again there was the kid. Red hoodie, earphones plugged in, hungry look in his eyes. He came at the same time every night, waited for something he liked, took it, then took off. When Oliver was sure he had the timing right, he pulled the Arrow out, set up the shot and then waited. _

_He saw the familiar look in the kid's eyes and then he was a blur. Oliver followed the gust of wind heading for him, aimed up the street and let the arrow go. The arrow hit the asphalt just as the kid ran by and the effect was instantaneous. _

_The arrow exploded, coating the street with a sticky goop, trapping the kid and stopping him dead in his tracks. "What the hell?" The kid looked around and tried in vain to free himself from the goop. _

"Super sticky arrow, I haven't come up with a technical name for it yet." Oliver explained at Chloe's confused look.

"_Didn't anyone ever tell you stealing was wrong?" Oliver lowered himself to the ground and smirked._

"_Yeah well I'm pretty sure trapping someone in weird sticky stuff is too." Bart pointed out. _

"_I wanted to talk to you." Oliver said walking carefully around the sticky stuff. "I've been watching you the past couple of days." _

"_Look dude, I'm flattered and everything but I just don't swing that way you know." Bart smirked at him and Oliver glared, though it was relatively ineffective since Bart couldn't see his eyes. _

"_You're funny kid." Green Arrow said, having a feeling, and being right, that calling him kid would annoy him. _

"_Who you calling kid Kermit?" Bart crossed his arms over his chest then frowned. "Wait a minute, you're that Green Arrow Bandit." _

"_I'm not a Bandit." Oliver sighed exasperated. "Talk to me about your speed." Green Arrow said. "How fast are you?" _

_  
"Let me out of this and you'll find out." Bart smirked. "Come on dude, I'll go pay for the tacos." _

"_Really?" Oliver asked unsure._

"_No, probably not." Bart smiled. _

"_How about this." Oliver said pulling another arrow out. "You give me two hours and I'll let you out. I'll even buy you a real diner." Bart looked down at the tacos. "Running like that must work up quite an appetite." _

"_You have no idea." Bart laughed. "Whatever I want to eat? Cause I can eat a lot." _

"_I can cover it." Oliver assured him. _

"_Sure." Bart said finally. _

"_You won't run?" Oliver pulled the arrow back and aimed it at the ground. _

"_Nah." Bart shook his head. "You've got me intrigued. Besides, I can take off if things get weird." He looked Oliver up and down. _

"_I was not hitting on you." Oliver sighed letting the arrow go._

The scene changed again and this time they were standing in Oliver's Penthouse in Star City.

_Bart whistled as the elevator opened and he stepped out into the penthouse. "Nice place. A little small." Bart shrugged, not wanting to appear too impressed. _

"_It's a place to sleep." Oliver shrugged. _

"_Comfortably." Bart added as Oliver walked to a bookshelf and pulled a small box toward him, swinging a door open. _

"_Ok, that's awesome." Bart stepped forward as Oliver walked into the room and started unloading his gear. He turned to the kid and smiled before reaching up to grab his sunglasses and pulling them off, he had a feeling he could trust this kid. "Holy freaking crap." Bart said as Oliver pulled the hood down. "You're Oliver freaking Queen." _

"_So I've been told." Oliver said pulling off his jacket and putting it away. _

"_No way, no way is Oliver Queen the Green Arrow Bandit. No way." Bart shook his head. _

"_Could you stop calling me a Bandit please?" Oliver sighed in annoyance. _

"_Sure dude, whatever." Bart held up his hands and took a tour of the room. "You've got some serious gear here." He reached out his hand to touch an arrow when Oliver grabbed him by the wrist. _

"_You don't want to do that. Trust me." Bart backed away slowly and nodded. _

"_Sure thing, no problem." He turned to Oliver. "So you said there would be food?" Oliver smiled and pulled out his phone._

"_What do you want?" He asked._

_Bart took another look around the penthouse and weighed his options. "Do they deliver lobster?" _

_Oliver resisted the urge to groan as he made a call. _

Again the scene swirled around them and Chloe watched on with interest at the exchange taking place.

_Two hours and five food deliveries later Bart was standing out on the balcony with Oliver, using one of his old bows to practice with. "So let me get this straight." Bart said pulling the string back way too far and letting the arrow fly. Oliver winced. It was two in the morning so the streets were pretty much deserted and Oliver had given him arrows with plastic tips, but it still didn't stop him from worrying. "You want me to come work for you?" Bart asked turning around to grab another arrow. "Using my, what did you call them, oh yeah, "special skills" or something." _

"_Right." Oliver nodded. _

"_To take down Lex Luther?" Bart asked him lowering the arrow and thinking for a second. _

"_Yeah, basically you'll be breaking into his places, downloading files." _

"_And I'll be getting paid to do this?" Bart asked pulling the string back once more and letting another arrow fly. _

"_Very well." Oliver said. _

"_And it'll be like on a case by case basis right? I mean I'm not going to be like at your beck and call or anything? Cause I go where I want and I do what I want." Bart told him. _

"_Case by case, a trial period if you want to call it that." Oliver agreed._

"_Where do I sign up Boss man?" Bart smiled tossing him the bow._


	3. Chapter 3

"So Bart signed on and the rest as they say is history." Oliver shrugged as the scene froze and he thought about the past. "I'd call him every now and then and he'd come help me out. Soon he just started hanging around, coming over on his own, seeking out jobs or just wanting to hang out." Oliver shrugged.

"And then he brought you Victor." Mark said and Chloe and Oliver jumped slightly, both of them having forgotten the other man was even there.

"Technically, yeah I guess, he brought me Victor." Oliver nodded. The scene changed around them. They were still in the penthouse but it was a little different. There were clothes strewn over the sofa, a video game console on the entertainment center and the living room was a mess. "Bart had been staying with me for a while. We'd been trying to crack this one facility of Lex's but the security system was giving us problems." Oliver tried to explain the mess.

_Bart walked into the Penthouse, limping slightly and holding a hand to his mouth. Oliver walked out of the back room and raised his eyebrows. "Did you get it?" _

"_Yeah I got it." Bart pulled a flash drive out of his pocket and tossed it to Oliver. "And I'll be just fine thanks for asking." He said as he sat on the sofa. "Do we have a medical plan?"_

"_What?" Oliver looked up and must have really seen Bart for the first time. He jacket was torn in places, a large gash on his arm was covered in dried up blood, his lip was split open and he looked like hell. "What happened?" _

"_Ok, so I get into the place easy as pie right, their security system was like something from 1987, like turning off a VCR man." Oliver motioned for him to get to the point. "As I'm going trough looking for the hard drive I realize there are no guards. Then I find out why. I hear this noise right, coming from down the hall, when I go to check it out I see the guards unconscious on the floor and this dude. Boss, this dude was like serious." _

"_What dude?" Oliver asked. _

"_I don't know. He was taking these filing cabinets like twice his size and just tossing them across the room. I've met one other guy my whole life who had strength like that but…he was pissed or on something or…I don't know." Bart winced as he dabbed at his lip. "So I must have made a noise or something cause this guy looks over at me and I run cause seriously you do not pay me enough to deal with shit like that, and I'm halfway to the street when I start to feel bad. I've never not finished a job before and I'm faster than this dude so I go back, only he's waiting for me." Bart sighed. "I can't believe I didn't see it coming. He throws a file cabinet straight at me when I run back in, I'm going fast enough so it just grazes me but, you know." He indicated his arm. "So I get the stuff and I haul ass out of there." _

"_What about the guy?" Oliver asked confused. "Do you know who he was? What he was doing there?" _

"_I wasn't gonna stick around and ask him." Bart scoffed and Oliver frowned. "But I got the next best thing." He smiled walking over to Oliver's computer and pulling something on the screen. "Did a run by on my way out. Planted a tracker on him." He turned the monitor to face Oliver and they smiled at the blinking green dot._

"Victor threw a filing cabinet at Bart?" Chloe asked astonished.

"Better than what he did to me." Oliver chuckled at the memory as the scene moved again.

_Oliver and Bart were walking down an alley, paying very close attention to the green dot on the screen in front of them. They looked up confused and stopped. "He should be right here." Oliver looked around at the empty alleyway when they heard a loud thump and felt the ground shake. They turned to find Victor standing behind him. _

"_Holy shit." Bart muttered. "Where did he come from?"_

_The guy looked up and Oliver and Bart followed his gaze to see nothing but tall buildings on either side of them. "I think he was on one of the roofs." _

"_But the tracker was down here right?" Bart asked confused. _

"_You don't think I found that thing the second you put it on me." The man spoke for the first time. "Figured someone would come looking after a while." _

"_So then this would be a trap?" Oliver asked. Victor nodded. "Good trap." _

"_Really good trap." Bart agreed. _

"_Who the hell are you and who do you work for?" Victor asked. _

"_Look, we just want to talk to you." Oliver held his hands up in surrender. _

"_Do you work for Lex?" Victor was fuming now._

_Bart snorted and Oliver turned to glare at him. He heard a loud creaking and turned back to see Victor standing with a dumpster held high over his head. "I'll ask again. Do you work for Lex?" _

"_No." Oliver flicked his gaze between the very heavy very large dumpster and the man who was holding it effortlessly. "You wanna put that down?" _

"_Not until you tell me why you're following me." Victor said. _

"_You remember me?" Bart asked taking a step forward. Victor turned to face him, dumpster and all and Bart took a step back. "Whoa, hold on now." _

"_Yeah I remember you." Victor sneered. "You were at Lex's lab the other night, so you want to tell me the truth now." _

_  
"Yes." Bart said hurriedly. "I was there, but not working for him. Stealing from him." Victor looked intrigued. _

"_He was stealing schematics for a security system for another of Lex's labs." Oliver cut in. _

"_What for?" Victor asked. _

_  
"Well, we can talk about that, and more, if you just, you know put the dumpster down." Oliver asked him nicely. _

_Victor looked between the two guys and thought for a minute. "Talk." He said finally. "You've got five minutes." _

"_It's a long story." Bart said. _

"_Ten minutes then." Victor glared at him. _

"_That's fine, that's plenty." Oliver looked up at the dumpster and Victor smiled almost sheepishly. _

"_Right." He said tossing it to the ground. The sound of metal hitting concrete made Bart's skin crawl and he turned to find Oliver, a strange expression on his face. _

"_Boss, you alright?" He asked as he noticed Oliver was breathing heavily. _

"_It's on my foot." Oliver managed to say through clenched teeth and Bart and Victor looked down to see that the dumpster had indeed fallen on Oliver's food. _

"_Oh crap." Victor said lifting it up quickly so that Oliver could pull his foot free. "Sorry about that." _

"_Nah, it's fine, really." Oliver was hopping on the good foot. _

Chloe couldn't hold it in any longer and finally the laughter escaped from her in a large burst. "It was not funny, it really hurt." Oliver glared at her.

"He dropped a dumpster on your foot." Chloe said through her laughter.

"It weighed like a ton." Oliver pointed out. "I broke three toes and fractured like a bunch of bones."

"A dumpster." Chloe laughed again.

"My pain is funny to you?" Oliver crossed his arms over his chest.

"That time?" Chloe looked back at the scene of Victor and Bart helping a limping Oliver out of an alleyway. "Yeah, pretty funny." She got herself under control and sighed. "So that's how you got Victor to join?"

"Bart convinced him actually." Oliver shrugged. "We told Victor what we were doing and then he told us what Lex had done to him. He was living on the street, his girl had left him, he had nothing left. He offered to help us bypass the security at the lab we'd been trying to get into. Having a human computer helped out a lot. So I offered him a spot on the team."

The scene changed again and Chloe watched intently as Victor and Bart followed Oliver back into the penthouse.

"_So this is what you do?" Victor asked as Oliver went over to the computer and plugged the flash drive in. _

"_Pretty much." Bart said. "And we get paid, well I get paid. Ollie has a whole other job." _

"_I can't believe the Green Arrow Bandit is Oliver Queen." Victor shook his head. _

"_Ixnay on the anditbay." Bart said under his breath and Oliver groaned at the name. _

"_Sorry." Victor said. _

"_So what do you say? Spot on the team, help us take down Lex?" Bart offered._

"_I'm not sure." Victor shook his head. "I just don't get it. How is that going to take Lex down?" Victor sat down._

"_Right now we're getting information. I want to know as much as I possibly can before we go in." Oliver told him._

"_So you haven't actually done anything yet?" Victor pointed out. _

"_We do plenty." Bart said offended. "In terms of actually taking out a facility though…no not so much." _

"_We need more people before we can do that." Oliver told him._

"_Look, it's a good thing we're doing here. You of all people know the evil that Lex can do." Bart pointed out. "It's a good paycheck for easy work and you know, Oliver's pretty cool I guess, once you get to know him." _

"_Bart did you just say something nice about me?" Oliver asked confused. _

"_Sorry Boss, won't happen again." Bart practically saluted him. _

"_Do I have to call you boss?" Victor asked. _

_  
"No, and I'd like it if Bart stopped too." Oliver glared at the younger boy._

"_Sure thing Boss." Bart walked over to the fridge._

"_Would I have to wear one of those?" Victor looked at the two of them and Oliver and Bart looked down, examining their costumes. _

"_What's wrong with this?" Bart asked offended. After a while he'd finally convinced Oliver to let him design his own suit. _

"_The leather's a little…" Victor trailed off. _

"_I know it seems kind of gay at first but trust me, Oliver doesn't swing that way ok." Oliver rolled his eyes and groaned. "I mean the first time we met, I thought he was hitting on me but he's totally into chicks." _

"_Thank you Bart." Oliver sighed. "All that aside, what do you say? You don't have to wear the costume if you don't want, and you'd have any piece of tech that Queen Industries had to offer right at your finger tips." _

_Victor thought for a second. "I can work with that." He nodded. _

"_Welcome to the team." Oliver held out his hand and Victor shook it. _

"So when did AC join up?" Chloe asked enthralled in the history she was learning here. She'd never really thought about how the team got together. It seemed to her as if they always had been, by the time she started helping out, they were so in sync she couldn't imagine them ever not being a team.

"That was Bart too actually." Oliver said surprised.

"Wow so Bart's the real brains behind the operation?" Chloe nudged his shoulder and Oliver glared at her.

"Do you wanna see what happened or not?" Oliver asked.

"Right sorry, continue." Chloe said and Oliver looked over at Mark who nodded at him. He'd learned now how to switch between memories, to pick and choose what he wanted to see. He thought about when he first heard about AC and suddenly they were there.

_Oliver was sitting at his desk in his office when he heard arguing out in the hallway. It was late, after ten, no one else should be there. He reached under his desk for the weapon he had hidden when he heard a familiar voice. "Yo, Boss man, you here?" It was Bart, Oliver relaxed slightly. _

"_Back here." Oliver called out and Bart and Victor walked into the room. "What are you doing here?" _

"_I told him not to bother you at work." Victor said apologetically. He'd been with them for almost a year now and he'd sort of fallen in the older brother role where Bart was concerned. _

"_And I told you it was an honest to God emergency." Bart glared at Victor. _

"_What's wrong?" Oliver asked. "Another of your favorite street vendor's go out of business?" _

"_No, but seriously, that guy could make a falafel like you wouldn't believe. It was a sad day in the food industry when he was shut down." _

"_He was shut down by the Health Department." Victor pointed out. "Do you know how bad a street cart has to be to get shut down by the Health Department?" _

_  
"I don't care." Bart said. "Those things were amazing." _

"_Guys." Oliver interrupted before Victor could come back with a counter argument. "The emergency." _

"_Right, sorry." Bart moved his attention to the problem at hand. "I've got this guy, this friend really who told me about this other guy." _

"_Really?" Victor snorted._

"_Anyway, this dude's right up your alley, superpowers, white hat, the whole deal." Bart said. _

_  
"How come I'm just now hearing about him?" Oliver closed the folder on his desk intrigued._

"_Well apparently he only deals in fish or something." Bart waved the question off as Victor looked at Oliver and mouthed "fish?" confused. "Anyway, point is, he's in trouble." _

"_What kind of trouble?" Oliver asked thoughts of Lex and his labs running through his head. _

"_Relax." Bart told him. "Not that kind. No need to pull out the arrows and suit up. This requires a different kind of weapon." _

"_What's that?" Oliver asked confused. _

"_Your wallet." Bart said sheepishly. _

"What?" Chloe asked confused.

"AC was leading a group of environmental activists. They did the usual, protests, sit ins, marches, then they got this idea to sink a whaler off the coast of Japan. Only he got caught, thrown into a Japanese prison."

"So you bailed him out?" Chloe said.

"It wasn't that easy." Oliver said slightly offended. "I had to go through two State Departments, diplomatic back channels, bribe quite a few US Senators."

"Then you bailed him out of jail." Chloe smiled.

"Basically yeah." Oliver agreed.

_Oliver was sitting in his limo going through a few files when the door opened and a very confused young man was practically pushed in. "Hey what's with the man handling?" He asked the guy as the door was slammed in his face. He turned to see Oliver sitting across from him. _

"_Arthur Curry I presume." _

"_Yeah." AC said cautiously. "Who the hell are you?" _

_Oliver looked at him for a second. "I'm the guy that just paid a little over a hundred thousand dollars to get your ass out of a Japanese prison so I'd lose the attitude." _

_AC glared at him for a second. "You bailed me out?" Oliver nodded. "I thought it was like Greenpeace or something. I got a guy there that usually deals with stuff like this." _

_  
"Afraid not." Oliver shook his head. "They aren't touching this thing with a ten foot pole. None of the other agencies are either."_

"_What's that supposed to mean?" AC asked._

"_It means as long as you were arrested for picketing fur factories and boycotting fish farms they were behind you. As soon as you crossed the line and committed a multitude of international crimes, they acted like they'd never heard of you." Oliver explained. _

"_Huh." AC sighed. "Well that kind of sucks." _

"_Yeah, it does." Oliver smiled at him. _

"_So who are you then?" AC asked. _

"_Just a friend of a friend." Oliver shrugged. _

_  
"A friend of a friend who's willing to shell out over a hundred grand for someone he doesn't even know." AC snorted. "Do you work for Luther?" _

_  
Oliver sighed. "Why does everyone assume I work for Lex?" _

"_Sorry, it's just the limo, the secrecy, the money." AC pointed out. "If you don't work for Lex then what's going on?" _

"_I have a proposition for you so you've got two options here." Oliver told him. "You can ride with me to the airport, I'll take you back to the states, drop you off in Florida or wherever you want as long as you promise to listen to me with an open mind, or I cancel my check and those lovely guards escort you back to your eight by eight cell." _

_AC sat back in his seat and smiled comfortably. "What's the in flight movie?" _

_Oliver chuckled and nodded at the driver to head for the airport._

"He agreed before we even took off." Oliver smiled. "Pretty anxious to get back at Lex for what he'd done to him."

"I know the feeling." Chloe mumbled and Oliver smiled sadly at her.

"So you had your team." Mark pointed out. "Well most of your team."

"What do you mean most of the team?" Chloe asked confused. "Everyone's there."

"He means you." Oliver pointed out.

"Oh." Chloe smiled. "Well I already know how I got on the team."

"I don't." Mark said. "Humor me."

Oliver looked over at Mark, then at Chloe and shrugged. "Sure, why not, I'm getting pretty good with this thing."

"_So there's something you need to know about Metropolis." Bart said following Oliver through the apartment. _

"_Bart, I think I can find good places to eat all on my own." Oliver laughed. _

"_No it's not about that…although there is this tiny Italian place on fourth street…that's not the point though." Bart shook his head. "See, the thing is, you're planning on doing your Green Arrow thing there am I right?" _

"_No." Oliver shook his head. "I just brought the costume cause I like walking around in Green Leather." _

"_Well, you never know." Bart held up his hands. "But what I'm trying to tell you is that town, it's sort of got it's own hero." _

_Oliver turned to Bart confused. "What?" _

"_There's this guy, a friend of mine, I mean he doesn't have the gadgets or the costumes or anything but he does what needs to be done, I'm just not sure you should be interfering with his turf." Bart pointed out. _

"_His turf?" Oliver asked._

"_Did you tell him about…" AC asked walking in the room. "You know?" _

_Bart nodded. "AC knows him too?" Oliver asked. _

"_Yeah, he's the guy who told me about AC." Bart shrugged. _

"_You talking about…" Victor let it trail off. _

"_Oh come on, how come this is the first I'm hearing of this guy?" Oliver glared at each of the guys in turn who all looked away sheepishly. _

"_He's like really serious about his secret man." Victor finally said. "He's a good guy and it wasn't our place to tell you." _

"_Fine whatever." Oliver shrugged it off._

"_I'm just trying to help you out here." Bart told him. "Remember what happened with the bat when we went to Gotham?" _

"Batman?" Chloe asked. "You know Batman?"

"We've met." Oliver said casually.

"Like do you _know_ Batman?" Chloe said with a strange tone in her voice and Oliver turned to her suddenly.

"Why, do you _know _Batman?" He asked.

"I might." Chloe smiled at him.

"Is there a superhero out there you don't know?" Oliver laughed at her.

"He was in a technological jam a while ago and Clark referred him to me." Chloe shrugged. "I've helped him out from time to time."

"You're moonlighting on me?" Oliver asked astonished.

"Like you're keeping me so busy I can't help out a friend?" Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Unbelievable." Oliver said under his breath.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Nothing." Oliver shook his head.

"No that was something." Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "What?"

"It's just, he's got to know you work for me. That's why he's using you." Oliver pointed out. "We have a sort of rivalry."

"First of all, he's not using me, I help him from time to time." Chloe fumed.

"Please, the head of Wayne industries needs your help with technical problems." Oliver snorted.

Chloe opened her mouth to say something and Mark butted in. "Will you two stop bickering? I'm trying to watch this." He motioned to the scene around them which had changed without Oliver doing it. They were in Clark's Barn now.

"_You know, we all make bad choices, Clark. All we can do is hope to make the right ones in the future, right?" Oliver smiled. Someone walked in from the back and Oliver turned to see Chloe for the first time. _

"_Clark. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had company." She walked cautiously into the room._

"_Chloe, Oliver Queen." Clark introduced them. _

"_Oh, hi. I feel like I know you already. Lois talks about you all the time." She smiled up at him and he couldn't help but smile back._

"_I was actually just gonna go see Lois right now. Maybe it's time I did some talking. Well, look, I'm looking forward to your article on Dark Thursday. I hope my satellite images helped." He nodded at her._

"_Yeah." Chloe smiled. _

"_Good. It's good to meet you. Clark." He said before leaving the barn. _

_Chloe watched him go, staring at the door even after he'd left until Clark cleared his throat. "Wow, in person he's really…wow." _

Oliver turned to Chloe with a smirk on his face as she blushed. "He can't have remembered that, he wasn't even there." Chloe protested.

"No that was you." Mark smiled. "When you have a shared memory, they might merge a bit."

"You could have warned me about that." Chloe mumbled under her breath.

"So I'm wow?" Oliver smirked down at her and she glared.

"When did she join the team?" Mark interrupted them again and they both thought of that day when it all came together.

_Oliver looked at the monitor as Chloe rode up the elevator. "Mr. Queen, it's Chloe Sullivan. Clark sent me." _

"I was terrified." Chloe admitted to Oliver in a whisper.

"_Where's Clark?" He asked as the grate opened. _

"_He went to rescue Bart." Chloe walked in the room. _

_Oliver stared at her. "He told you about Bart?" _

"_We trust each other. Clark tells me everything, well, almost everything. I did have to figure out about your green-leather fetish on my lonesome. Don't worry. I didn't say anything to Lois. Although, you might want to consider…"_

"_Hey, let's just stick to the main plot there sidekick." Oliver stepped down to walk over to her. "So what do you got?"_

"_Hopefully a solid lead on Bart." She smiled. "Where are Victor and AC?" Oliver hung his head in disbelief._

_Victor and AC stepped out of a side room. "Guess we're not that good at the whole secret part of this yet." Victor said. _

"_Yeah, but you're great at getting caught by the villain." Both Victor and AC flinch. "Anyway, I think Bart's being held at a place called the Ridge Facility." _

"_That's down by the docks." AC walked further in the room._

"_It's on our list of possible 33.1 targets." Oliver pulled up a schematic on the screen. "All right boys, you know the drill. Let's gear up and get out." _

"_Oh no." Chloe said studying the picture. _

"_What now?" Oliver asked annoyed. _

"_Lead shielding. This isn't just for Bart. I think the Ridge Facility's being used to refine meteor rock. Clark's in trouble." Chloe told him. Oliver stared at her for a second then turned to the guys. _

"_Suit up, we'll deal with this too." Oliver told them. "Just clean up everyone's mess." _

_  
"Where do you want me?" Chloe asked as the guys left the room. _

"_In your car, on your way back to the Daily Planet, and if I so much as see one sentence of this on the front page…" Oliver warned her. _

"_First of all, I'm not a helpless little girl. I found this place, I've been helping Clark for longer than you've been wearing leather so why don't you drop the patronizing tone?" Oliver nodded, thoroughly chastised. "Second of all, have you seen Clark splashed on the front page? Victor or AC? I'm not that kind of reporter." _

"_You're right, sorry." Oliver admitted. _

"_So where do you want me." Chloe asked. _

_  
Oliver thought for a second. "How are you with computers?" He asked and Chloe smiled. _

"That's when she joined?" Mark asked.

"Not really . She never officially joined the team." Oliver said annoyed. "She had her own stuff to deal with, well really Clark's stuff to deal with. It took a while to convince her, but she did odd jobs."

_Chloe was typing rapidly on the computer in the deserted Daily Planet building. "Got it." She said to seemingly no one. "I just intercepted the file. Yeah of course I deleted any trace of it. This isn't the frist time I've done something like this." She popped out the disk. "I'll see you in a few." A knife landed on the desk right by her hand and she gasped as she ran for the door. "Help! Somebody's after me." She ran into the elevator and punched a button as another knife flew by her head._

_She ran out onto the roof and looked around. "The roof! Come on! Isn't this when you're supposed to swoop in and save me?" Oliver was nowhere to be seen and the woman dropped down behind her. _

"_No pepper spray? This city's a dangerous place. You should be prepared." _

"_You can have my wallet." Chloe smiled to her._

"_You know that's not what I'm after. Next time, maybe you'll think twice before you steal what doesn't belong to you." The woman moved forward and a voice stopped her._

"Finder's keepers. I like the look. Italian?" Oliver said from further up on the roof.

"_Why, you thinking of trading in your tights?" She asked as Oliver shot her with an arrow, pinning her to the wall. He jumped down as she got loose and let another arrow fly only the girl did something, opened her mouth and before the arrow even made it to her, it broke apart into small pieces and fell. While Oliver watched astonished she slit Chloe's bag, knocked her to the ground and grabbed the disk, jumping over Oliver who'd run to check on Chloe. She stared at them for a second before jumping from the rooftop. _

_Oliver and Chloe rushed to the ledge and saw her hanging from a rope. Oliver turned to Chloe astonished and took off his glasses. "We were barely introduced." Chloe couldn't help but laugh. He smiled at her then frowned. "You ok?" He reached a gloved hand up to her cheek. _

"_Fine." Chloe shrugged him off. "But she got the disk." _

"_It's ok." Oliver assured her. "I can get it back. The important thing right now is that Lex doesn't have it." _

"_I guess." Chloe spared one last look over the edge before moving to the doorway, Oliver right behind her. _

"_I can't believe you can pass up opportunities like this." Oliver shook his head at her. _

"_Like what? Being attacked on rooftops?" Chloe smiled at him. _

"_Come work for me and I can guarantee it should happen on a by weekly basis." Oliver offered. _

_  
"As tempting as that sounds." Chloe smiled. "I've got stuff to do here." _

_  
"For Clark?" The tone of his voice told Chloe what he thought of that as they got in the elevator._

"_What's wrong Queen? Jealous he's hogging all my mad hacking skills?" Chloe nudged Oliver's shoulders. _

_  
"Something like that." Oliver sighed. "I suppose he needs you more than I do. Without you he'd probably be dead." _

"_True." Chloe nodded. "And it's not like I've ever turned you down when you needed help." _

"_Yeah well there's a lot more work for you if you're ever interested." Oliver pointed out to her. "Trust me we could keep you busy, and the pay is pretty good if I do say so myself." _

"_What's with the hard sell all of a sudden?" Chloe looked at him concerned when the reached the bottom floor. "Is there something big going down?" _

_  
"Just the usual." Oliver shrugged. "Maybe I just want the pleasure of your company for more than five minutes once every three months." He suggested. _

"_Right." Chloe laughed. "And maybe Bart will one day finally be full." He walked with her to the door. "Hey, seriously though, whenever you need me, you know I'll be there right?" _

"_I know that." Oliver assured her. "And you know whenever you get tired of Boy Scout there's always a place for Watchtower on our team." _

"_I know." She assured him. _

_  
"Go get that clean up." He motioned to her scratched cheek before kissing the other one. "I'll call you." _

_Chloe nodded as he disappeared into the night. _

* * *

Bart, AC, and Victor stood staring at the three completely unconscious people in the living room. "So like do we have to watch them or can we go get some food."

"Bart." AC glared at him.

"I'm hungry." He whined.

"You're always hungry." Victor said. "Oliver seems stable for now but Chloe's probably not very comfortable on the floor like that."

"Mark said not to touch Oliver and Chloe touched him and you saw what happened." Bart pointed out.

"No, she was fine until she used her powers on him, so I think we can move her as long as we don't use our powers." AC cocked his head to the side.

"How would you do that anyway?" Bart asked. "Use your power on her. What are you going to do? Drip all over her."

AC slapped Bart in the head and Victor rolled his eyes. "I don't have any powers, I got it." He bent down and picked Chloe up.

"I'm gonna run for some Mexican." Bart said. "You guys want anything?"

"Sure, grab me a burrito." Victor called back.

"Can do." Bart nodded before speeding out of the room.

"Some nachos would be nice." AC called after him.

Victor laid Chloe on Oliver's bed and walked back out. "Ok, so Bart was right do we just sit here and watch them?"

"Would it be insensitive to watch a movie? Or maybe play some X-box?" AC asked.

"What do they care?" Victor shrugged. "They aren't even awake."

* * *

Next up: How Chloe got to where she is now!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Oliver's Head**

"So that's it?" Mark asked. "That was your team."

"That was my team." Oliver agreed then he scoffed.

"And you did a lot of good right?" Mark prompted.

Oliver turned to look at him, that strange angry expression on his face again as the scene changed rapidly behind them to an alleyway, one they'd been to before, a woman walked in looking scared. Chloe looked around confused. She hadn't done this, this wasn't her memory it was obviously Oliver's. "You know what I did?" Oliver asked, the anger rolling off of him in waves now. "I wasted ten years of my life on some stupid crusade. I wasted years of other peoples life and for what? Lex is still out there, he's still doing whatever the hell it is that he wants to do and I can't stop him. The only thing I can do is get people hurt, ruin their lives."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe looked at him confused.

"Bart, Victor, AC." Oliver threw up his hands. "They look to me like I have all the answers, like I can do anything. They follow me blindly into dangerous situations and where does that get them? Bart was captured and tortured by Lex. Victor's been shot, AC almost died a few times."

"That is not…you can't think those are your faults." Chloe shook her head.

"Of course they're my fault." He turned to her. "They never would have even been in those situations if it weren't for me."

"No, you're right." Chloe said sternly. "They'd probably be dead. Victor was about two seconds away from self destructing when you showed up. Bart was going to land himself on the wrong side of the law, or the wrong side of someone, and AC would be rotting away in some Japanese prison."

"Who are we to say that my life for them is any better?" Oliver challenged her. "And what I did to you, God, you're the worst."

"What exactly do you think you did to me?" Chloe asked astonished.

"Did you ever imagine five years ago that you'd be living this life?" Oliver asked her. "Honestly. A different city every couple of months, a different name, a different look, a different life. Constantly on your guard, constantly scared that Lex is going to pop up out of every corner, every shadow. That's what I did to you."

Chloe looked at him for a minute her anger softening, her expression turning to a soft smile. "That's what you think you did to me?" She laughed. "Oh God Oliver, you are so off base." She shook her head.

"What are you talking about? Your life is over because of me." Oliver said. "Chloe Sullivan is basically dead."

"You didn't kill me Oliver." She reached out and touched his cheek lightly. "You don't even know do you? You saved me." She looked around at the alleyway, Oliver talking to the woman and then turned to Mark and swallowed hard. "Can I show him?" Mark nodded quietly. "How?" Chloe said a little fear in her voice.

"You just have to think about it." Mark smiled.

Chloe took a deep breath and then closed her eyes, thinking about the one thing that she never wanted to think about again. Oliver watched intently as his memory was replaced by Chloe's. The alleyway disappeared and in its place was a cold sterile room. He looked around until he found Chloe sitting in a chair, the only piece of furniture in the room, a burlap bag covering her head, two armed uniformed soldiers standing behind her. "Chloe what is…?" Oliver turned to find her breathing heavily, the full force of the memory a little hard on her and he reached out to grab her hand. She squeezed his fingers reassuringly before nodding at the scene, telling him to watch and pay attention.

_The door to the room opened and Lex Luther walked in and nodded at the soldiers who looked at each other then walked out of the room, leaving Chloe and Lex alone together. He walked over to her slowly and grabbed the bag, pulling it from her head. She shook her hair out of her face and looked up at him. "I should have known." She said letting out a breath._

"_You really should have." Lex agreed a smile on his face. _

"_So then those guys from before?" Chloe asked. "They work for you right? They're not really federal agents?" _

"_Yes and no." Lex walked around her. "They work for me, and they are really federal agents." _

_Chloe looked confused for a second. "So then, where am I?" _

"_The same place they take all the other terrorists." Lex stopped in front of her. "Well the really dangerous ones anyway." He reached out and brushed some hair from her face and she flinched away from him. _

"_What do you want?" Chloe glared._

"_It's simple really." Lex sighed. "I want you to come with me." Chloe barked out a laugh. "I wouldn't be so quick to answer." He scolded her. "You come with me, you work with me, you let me in on those nifty powers you try so desperately to hide, or you stay here." _

"_Let me see." Chloe pretended to think about it. "Prison or you?" She frowned. "That's not fair, the choice is pretty obvious don't you think?" Lex started to smile when Chloe spoke again. "Can I see my lawyer now?" _

_Lex glared at her. "I don't think you quite understand the severity of your situation Miss Sullivan." Lex pointed out. "This isn't Smallville County lock up, hell this isn't even Guantanamo Bay, in two months you'll be praying for Guantanamo Bay. This is super max, this is the place reserved for the worst of the worst." Chloe's smile started to falter. "There will be no lawyers, there will be no trial, there won't even be a record of you being here. Say goodbye to sunlight, say goodbye to personal freedoms, say goodbye to the rest of your life. Come with me or spend the next eighty years in a five by five cell, no bars, no bed, no roommate, just you, four walls and a tiny window." _

_Chloe glared at him. "But…" She said and Lex raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't' have to spend that time with you right?" _

_She wasn't prepared for the slap but she really should have been. _

"Son of a bitch." Chloe heard Oliver mumble under his breath as he squeezed her hand.

"It's ok." She whispered.

_Chloe spit blood out onto the floor and then looked back up at Lex. "So you made your decision?" _

"_Pretty sure I have." Chloe nodded. _

_  
"I'll be back." Lex said. "I'll give you three months; maybe by then you'll reconsider my offer." _

"_Why even give me an offer?" Chloe asked. "You've got me. I'm right here, tied up, defenseless. Why give me the choice?"_

"_You're no good to me unless you come voluntarily." Lex explained. "And if I can't use you, I'd rather you be somewhere I know you won't cause me trouble."_

"_Well if I were you, I wouldn't hold me breath." Chloe called after him as he walked to the door. When he walked out the guards came back in, pulling her heavily out of the chair and dragging her away. _

Oliver turned to Chloe and she shook her head. "Just watch." She said as the room vanished and was replaced by an even smaller room, not even big enough to lie down and stretch out in. Chloe was sitting on the floor, her knees up to her chest and her head resting on them. Her hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks and her orange jumpsuit was covered in dirt and grime. She lifted her head and Oliver had to close his eyes to keep his cool. Her face was a veritable rainbow of bruises and cuts, scabs and scars. She lifted her hands and pushed her hair back and Oliver caught bruises on her wrists and arms too. Chloe took a shaky breath. "It took a while to learn the rules because they never bother to tell you what they are until you've broken one." She explained. "And then by the time you get them all down, they go and change them on you." She smiled sadly as Oliver let go of her hand and walked closer, squatting down to examine her closer.

"What happened?" Oliver asked his voice scratchy.

"I don't remember." Chloe shook her head. "I put my fork in the wrong place at diner or something."

"And they beat you for that?" Oliver turned to her.

"They beat you for breathing loud." Chloe laughed humorlessly. She reached out and grabbed his arm pulling him away. "This isn't your normal everyday prison situation Oliver. There's no oversight, no check up, the people that come here, come here to stay, no one's looking for them, no one cares."

"I care." Oliver said angrily.

"I know." Chloe squeezed his hand again and smiled.

_The door opened and Chloe scrambled to her feet. "Out." The guard said gruffly and Chloe quickly moved to the door but obviously not quick enough. Oliver winced as the butt of the rifle he was holding connected with Chloe's stomach. She fell to the floor in pain but was quickly pulled up again and shoved into the corridor. She stumbled to the back of a line with seven other people. "Move." The guard called out and they all started walking forward. Every now and then someone would walk too slow, or too fast and get a blow to the stomach or the head. They came to the end of the hallway and another guard opened a door. "Fifteen minutes." He said shoving them into a larger room. The line dispersed somewhat each person wandering off in a different direction. _

"Exercise time." Chloe explained to Oliver. "Twice a week. Fifteen minutes."

_Chloe wandered around, stretching her legs as everyone else did the same. "Inside the yellow line." A guard yelled at another prisoner, her foot falling slightly outside the thick yellow square painted on the floor. She didn't move back quick enough and he sent a hard kick to her kidneys. The prisoner, another woman went down hard and the guard walked away laughing. Chloe moved in what seemed like a random line until she saw the guards group together and start talking then she made her way to the woman who was still on the floor. She crouched down, one eye on the guards as she pulled the woman up to a somewhat standing position._

"_You know better." Chloe chastised her voice low and gravely. "Broken ribs?" Chloe asked and the woman nodded. Chloe took another quick look around the room before discretely putting her hand on the woman's stomach, a faint white light could be seen for a fraction of a second and then the woman stood up straighter and breathed more easily as Chloe seemed to double over in pain. _

"_Thank you." The woman whispered, tears in her eyes._

_Chloe tried to smile up at her but it was hard. "Sullivan!" A guard screamed and the woman backed away from Chloe quickly. "You know the rules. No fraternizing with other prisoners." _

_Chloe didn't say anything; there wasn't anything she could say that wouldn't result in her getting a beating so she didn't say anything. "He's talking to you Sullivan." Another guard said walking up to Chloe. "Stand up straight." She tried but it was difficult with her newly broken ribs. She felt the blow to her back before she saw it and she was sprawled on the ground, writhing in pain when someone hauled her up right again. "I think Sullivan needs to learn some manners." One of the guards said. "Take her to the hole." He shoved Chloe to another guard who nodded and pulled her out of the room. _

"What's the hole?" Oliver asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

Chloe just shook her head. That was obviously something she couldn't show him. "That's where they take you if…"

"They beat you there?" Oliver asked her and Chloe nodded. "You knew they would take you there when you helped that woman didn't you?" Chloe nodded again. "Why would you do that? She's a terrorist, she's…"

"She's not." Chloe said vehemently. "A terrorist group kidnapped her children, forced her to steal state secrets for them, for years. When she got caught, they got killed and she didn't have the strength to fight for her freedom, she signed whatever confessions they put in front of her.." Oliver hung his head.

"Still." He whispered. "You shouldn't…"

"I had to." Chloe turned to him. "I had to know that I was still me, I had to know that I was still human." She tried to explain. "I knew I could help her, and if I just stood by and let her suffer…"

"Then you were no better than them." Oliver said comprehending. Chloe nodded sadly as the scene changed.

"It didn't matter." Chloe sighed.

_She was back in the same room as before, this time there was no bag over her head. Her left eye was swollen shut, her cheek bruised and bleeding and her arm hanging limply at her side as if broken. The door opened and she barely looked up when Lex walked in. He paused slightly at the sight of her then kept going. "Miss Sullivan." He smiled. "It's been three months. Have you reconsidered my proposal?' _

_Chloe looked up at him intently. "Go to hell." She managed to say through her broken jaw. Lex sighed and shook his head. _

"_You stay here much longer and you won't even be any good to me anymore." Lex told her. _

"_Sorry." Chloe said. "But we've got the Christmas pageant coming up soon and I promised I'd play Mary." _

_Lex rolled his eyes and headed for the door. "Have it your way." He said walking out of the room. _

"Why didn't you go with him?" Oliver asked her. "I just…I know its Lex but it had to have been better than that. At least maybe I would have gotten to you sooner or…"

"I couldn't do it Oliver. I'd made too many deals with too many Luther's for far too long. I couldn't do it again, I just couldn't." She tried to explain.

"But I don't understand when we got you back a few months later…" He trailed off. "You weren't like that. You still had life in you then but when we found you, you were broken or I don't know but you were like that."

Chloe paused for a second then the scene changed again.

_They were back in the "exercise room". Chloe's wounds had healed enough to allow her to walk around, but not well. She paced slowly inside the yellow square, staring around the room until she realized something. There were only six other people there, someone was missing. She studied faces and froze catching the attention of the man walking beside her. "Where's Jana?" Chloe whispered. _

_  
The man looked suddenly at the guards then shook his head slightly before moving on. Chloe searched the room one more time, sure enough Jana, the woman from before wasn't there. "Where's Jana?" Chloe said loudly to the guards, so loudly that the whole room froze, you didn't talk during exercise time and you didn't talk to the guards unless spoken to. _

"_You mean your little girlfriend?" A guard walked closer to Chloe, the one who seemed to relish any pain he brought upon her. "She checked out." _

"_What do you mean checked out?" Chloe grunted. "No one checks out of here." She laughed humorlessly. _

"_She got a little lippy with us, after your last trip to the hole. Told us you were just trying to help her out." The guard smiled. "She talked back to us." Chloe closed her eyes and tried to fight off the inevitable conclusion they were coming to. "So we had to teach her some manners." He looked Chloe up and down. "Unfortunately, her stamina isn't as good as yours and she didn't make it through the lesson." _

_  
"You mean you killed her?" Chloe said flatly. "You murdered her." _

_The guard stared at Chloe for a while before smiling. "Can't murder someone who doesn't exist." He shrugged and then walked away. _

"I just couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't care about anything. I couldn't care about the others and I could care about myself, because I was afraid that…I couldn't do it anymore." Chloe said tears running down her face as she finally mourned for the losses she suffered in that place, for the loss of her friend, for the loss of herself. Oliver pulled her into a tight hug as she finally let it all out.

"You got out of there." Mark reminded her. "Oliver got you out."

Chloe pulled away from Oliver's comforting embrace and nodded. "I'm not sure how but yeah."

"I should have gotten to you sooner, if I had known…" Oliver trailed off. "There was no record of you anywhere. It was like you disappeared off the face of the earth it took months just to get a solid lead and then it took three more to get to the people who could get to you." Oliver explained. "Finally I found someone on the inside, probably one of Lex's men who was more than willing to look the other way and open a door while I took you out, for a fee of course."

The scene changed again and Chloe was back in her cell.

_The door to Chloe's cell opened but she barely registered it. The guard stood there staring at her for a while and then barked at her. "Sullivan, up, you have a visitor." Chloe raised her head slowly, the words not registering with her at first then she shook her head. "I wasn't asking, I was telling you." The guard moved into the room. _

"_Just tell Lex I haven't changed my mind." Chloe mumbled. _

"_It's not Luther." The guard grabbed her roughly and pulled her up. "Let's go." _

_Chloe followed him confused to the room where she usually met with Lex and was surprised when she was shoved in to see Oliver standing there. He glanced at her quickly before walking to the guard and pulling an envelope out of his jacket pocket, passing it to him. "She's worth that much to you?" He asked counting the bills Oliver had just given him. _

"_Lex never finds out about this." Oliver said sternly. _

"_I don't know nothing about nothing." The guard agreed slipping the money in his pocket. _

"_Maybe you should think of early retirement just to be sure." Oliver said to him. "Because if I even think you breathed one word of this…" _

"_Hey I like the beach as much as the next guy." He smiled. "Consider me vanished." Oliver nodded once at him as he walked out of the room and left the two of them there. _

_Oliver coughed and looked over at Chloe who was standing there staring at him in confusion. "Chloe?" He moved forward tentatively and she took a step back. "I brought you some clothes." He reached to the bag on the ground and pulled out a pile of folded clothes. She stared at them for a second before taking them from him slowly. "You should change." He said. "And then we can go." She didn't move. She just stood there with the clothes in her hands. "You should change." He repeated and Chloe nodded slightly before setting the clothes down and unbuttoning her jumpsuit. Oliver turned around to give her privacy as she put the fresh clothes on. _

"_Ok." Chloe whispered and he turned back around astonished. He'd gotten the clothes from her apartment, they were hers but they didn't fit anymore. They hung heavy and loose on her frail frame and he couldn't help but think she looked like a helpless child. _

_  
"Come on." Oliver grabbed her arm lightly to lead her out of the room. They walked down the hall and out a door into the sunlight, something which Chloe hadn't seen in months. She brought her hands up to her eyes and shielded herself, stopping to look around at the outside world. "Come on." Oliver urged her down to the curb and into the waiting car. _

"I don't even really remember that." Chloe said. "I don't remember what happened after either. It was like one day I was in that place and the next day I woke up and I was in Star City with you."

Oliver frowned at her, they never really talked about what happened but it wasn't like that. "It was months." Oliver said quietly. "You were like that for months." Chloe looked at him confused. "I brought you back to Star City and you just…you just sat there and stared. We could hardly get you to eat, you wouldn't talk at all. You really had me scared."

"_How is she?" Oliver walked into the back room to complete his daily ritual. He would get home from work, change his clothes and then go sit with Chloe, relieving whoever was on duty at the time. _

_Victor looked up from beside Chloe's bed and shook his head. "She's not getting any better Oliver, she's just not." _

"_She will." Oliver insisted walking into the room. _

"_We were talking today." Victor told him. "Me and the guys." Oliver looked at him confused. "We can't help her here. We don't know how, hell we don't even know what's wrong." _

"_What are you saying?" Oliver asked. _

"_I'm saying maybe it's time to take her somewhere, get her real help." Victor prompted. "The place where you put her mother." _

"_I'm not putting Chloe in a mental institute." Oliver snapped. "She'll be fine." He insisted. _

"And you were." Oliver pointed out. "One day you were sitting out in the living room with us. Bart and AC were playing with something, tossing it around the room when Bart threw it wild and it was headed straight for you. Before he could get to you, you put your hands up and caught it. You'd never shown any signs that you knew what was going on around you before, but you caught it and you gave it back to him. The next day you talked, asked for orange juice or something, and then slowly you just came back."

"I don't remember that." Chloe shook her head astonished.

"I'll never forget it." Oliver looked sadly at her.

"So you saved her." Mark pointed out. "In more ways than one."

"Yeah well what about after that?" Oliver asked.

"That wasn't your fault. I made my choice." Chloe told him.

"Because you had no other choice." Oliver pointed out.

"Because of Lex." Chloe said. "Not because of you."

"What happened after that?" Mark asked.

Oliver and Chloe looked over at him as the scene changed again.

_Oliver was in the gear room looking at something on a monitor when Chloe walked in. She looked a lot better than she had before; there was a light in her eyes again. "I thought I'd find you in here." She smiled and walked slowly into the room. _

_  
"Hey." Oliver checked his watch. "What are you still doing up?" _

_  
"Couldn't sleep." She shrugged moving to sit next to him. "I needed to talk to you." _

_  
"Ok." Oliver closed the screen. "Go." _

"_I think it's time for me to leave." Chloe said. _

_  
This caught Oliver completely off guard. "Leave?" He asked confused. "I don't understand, don't you like it here?" He asked her. _

"_I do." Chloe assured him. "I just, I think it's time for me to be on my own again." _

_  
"Are you sure?" Oliver asked her. _

"_I can eat on my own, I can go to the bathroom on my own, I'm not staring at the wall drooling, I think I'm ready." She smiled. _

"_You can't go back." Oliver pointed out. "You can't go back to your old life, to being Chloe Sullivan. Lex won't let you." _

"_I know." Chloe nodded. _

"_You'll have to become someone else. You'll have to move around a lot, stay out of trouble, stay hidden." He said. _

"_I know." Chloe nodded. _

"_Are you sure?" Oliver pressed._

"_Oliver, I don't think you'll ever know how grateful I am for everything you've done for me. I know I'll never be able to repay you, but when I was in that place, I thought I'd never get out and now I'm here, only it's just a different prison. I get to shower and the foods better and they don't hit you but I can't leave, I can't…go to work or go grocery shopping or take a walk in the park. I want to be in the world again." _

_  
"Even if it's as….Jennifer Poler and not Chloe Sullivan?" _

"_Even if it's as Jennifer Poler." Chloe smiled. "Although I think I can come up with a better name than that." _

"_Ok." Oliver said after a while. "But if we do this, we do it my way. Only I can know where you are, me and the guys, you can never come back here. I'll stay in touch with you, I'll come visit you but you can't come back here or Smallville. You let me take care of the details. I'll help you set up your alter egos and pay for everything ok?" _

"_Oliver…" Chloe tried to protest. _

"_Chloe whether you like it or not, you're part of my team, I take care of my team. Deal with it." Oliver told her. _

"_So does that mean I'll be expected to help you guys out at the drop of a dime? Watchtower style, just like old times?" Chloe smiled at him. _

"_It's not a requirement." He told her. "But I'd like that." _

"_So would I." Chloe assured him. _

"And so started a life of seven different pairs of colored contacts, eighteen fake ID's and Social Security cards, every hair dye known to man and never being able to go home again." Oliver pointed out.

"And I chose that." Chloe assured him.

"I didn't give you much of a choice." Oliver argued.

"I'm a pretty smart girl Oliver; you don't think if there was another way I would have found it?" She asked him.

"But you still worked for me."

"I like working for you." Chloe pointed out. "If anyone has a reason to take Lex down you'd think it would be me."

"But it still…for God sakes Chloe it got you killed. I got you killed." Oliver screamed at her.

"Yeah." Chloe smiled at him. "And I got better." She reminded him as once again the scene around them swirled and changed.

_Chloe stared down at the manuscript in front of her and her eyes started to water, she forgot to take her contacts out again. She stood up and stretched, making her way to the small bathroom in the small apartment Oliver had rented for her, well that Oliver had rented for Marcy Jacobs. Chloe painstakingly pulled the dark brown contacts out of her eyes and blinked rapidly. That was a little better. She splashed some water on her face to keep herself awake, she wanted to get through this book before tomorrow so she could have the weekend to get unpacked again. _

_She'd learned something this time, proof reading textbooks was not a good job for her, it was boring and monotones and she had to constantly resist the urge to change incorrect substance and not just the grammar. She brushed a lock of jet black hair out of her eyes and stared at her reflection. Marcy was name number four, hair color number four, eye color number four, city number four, life number four since she'd left Star City over a year ago. She'd only had one problem with Lex so far that required her to get up and move in the middle of the night but she wasn't taking any chances, packing up her life every few months or so and moving on just to stay one step ahead._

_The shrill ring of her cell phone, her special cell phone shook her out of her remembrance and she walked to the living room, opened up a drawer and pulled out a folder. She dumped the cell phone into her hand and frowned answering the call. "Hello!" _

"_Chloe!" It was Bart and he sounded scared. He wasn't supposed to have this number, only Oliver was supposed to have this number so right away Chloe knew it was important. _

"_What's going on?" She looked around the apartment thinking she wouldn't mind changing jobs but she was just getting used to this place. If Lex had found her though, she would leave everything and be out of town in two hours. _

"_It's Oliver." Bart said sounding out of breath, which in and of itself was strange for Bart. "He's been shot. It's really bad Chloe." _

"_Take him to the hospital." She practically screamed. _

"_He made us swear never to do that. Plus he's in full gear and the time it would take to get him out…I don't know what to do, you have to tell me what to do." Bart panted. _

_Chloe took a deep breath. "Ok, where are you guys?" _

"_Bolivia." Bart swore and she could hear the others screaming in the background. _

"_Do you have a hotel there?" _

"_Yeah." Bart said. _

"_Take him there. You need to call Clark, tell him where you are, he knows where I am, and then tell him to come get me as fast as he can and bring me there." _

"_What?" Bart asked confused. "Chloe that…"_

"_Bart I need you to trust me on this one please. Call Clark." _

"_He won't come." Bart shook his head. "Oliver said that Clark couldn't come unless it was an emergency." _

"_I know, tell him code word sapphire." Chloe explained. "He'll know that means emergency." _

"_Ok." Bart said a little calmer. "Ok." He didn't even say goodbye as the phone hung up. _

_Chloe grabbed a jacket and her small overnight bag that was always packed in case of an emergency. She ran to the bathroom, pulling a small bottle of pills out of the medicine cabinet and was tucking them in the bag when she felt the tell tale wind of a Clark Kent entrance. "Chloe what's going on?" _

"_No time to explain, did Bart tell you where they were?" Clark nodded. "Let's go." Chloe held out her arm and Clark grabbed it speeding away._

Oliver grabbed onto Chloe's arm as the memory stayed with her as she zoomed through three countries in Clark's arms. "Ok, so glad I never had to do that." Oliver said feeling his stomach turn. Chloe just smiled.

_Clark and Chloe made it to the hotel a few minutes before the guys and Chloe set about getting things ready. She set up the back room with everything she would need, her pills, large bottle of water, towels, and a change of clothes, gunshot wounds could get messy, and was explaining what happened to Oliver when they got three. Chloe had to grab onto the sofa to keep her knees from buckling when AC and Victor carried an unconscious bloody Oliver into the hotel room. "On the couch." She said softly and they followed her lead without questions. Chloe knelt down next to Oliver and took a deep breath. "Clark, I don't have time, you need to explain everything to them, I'm sorry. You know what to do." _

_  
"They don't know?" Clark asked astonished. Chloe shook her head in shame before laying her hands on Oliver's chest. _

"_Know what?" Victor asked. "Why aren't we taking him to a hospital?" _

"_Just…watch." Clark told them as the white light enveloped the room. _

Instead of the light fading and the scene returning to normal though, it was fading to black. "What's going on?" Oliver looked around confused.

"Well, we're in Chloe's memory." Mark explained. "And Chloe's dying."

"So what happens to us?" Oliver asked frantic.

"We follow her." Mark shrugged.

"No." Chloe said suddenly looking around, panicking. "No, not there, anywhere but there." She ran up to Mark. "Don't take us there."

"Where?" Oliver asked concerned. Suddenly they were in a black space, completely black. It wasn't dark, he could see Chloe and Mark perfectly, it was black, the walls, if there were walls, the ceiling, the floors, it was like standing in the middle of never ending nothingness.

"Here." Chloe said quietly looking around like a trapped rat. "Get us out of here." Chloe snarled at Mark.

"Can't." Mark shrugged. "Your memory brought us here. We'll leave when you do."

"Where is here?" Oliver asked again. Chloe didn't answer him, she just stared past him. He turned to find the other Chloe with her eyes closed standing a few feet away taking deep breaths before lowering herself to the floor slowly and sitting. "Is this…death?" He asked.

"No." Chloe tore her eyes away from herself. "I think it's just my death."

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked.

"I don't really die." Chloe said. "Because I come back. I think this is some kind of limbo, not life, but not death, just non existence." She said.

"This is where you come?" Oliver looked around. "Every time?" Chloe just nodded. They were all silent for a while and Oliver looked down at his watch confused. "It's only been a minute?"

"And an hour." Chloe nodded. "Time is strange here, it feels like you've been here for an eternity but at the same time, like it's just been one second."

"How do you keep from going crazy in here?" Mark asked, even he was having problems with this one.

"It's…" Chloe struggled to explain it to them. "I don't know." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I try to think of something else, anything else." She turned to Mark and Oliver pleadingly. "You said when we had shared memories, they could merge. Could we go to Oliver's part now?"

Mark turned to Oliver and raised his eyebrows. "Yeah sure." Oliver said to her, thinking as hard as he could about what he remembered from that day.

_Oliver sat bolt upright on the couch gasping for breath. He brought his hands up to his chest but there was nothing there, no blood, no bullet wound, nothing. There was a small hole in his jacket but other than he was perfectly fine. "What happened?" He looked up and saw the guys huddled around something on the floor. The huddle parted and Oliver felt his stomach twist when he saw Clark lift Chloe off the ground, blood running down her shirt as her head rolled to the side unmoving. "What happened?" He asked again and Victor, AC, and Bart turned to him, their expressions just as confused as his. _

"_She…" Bart, for once in his life turned away speechless and followed Clark to the back room. _

_AC and Victor looked at each other and then Victor spoke, his words unsure. "You were shot, it was really bad and you told us never to take you to a hospital and we didn't know what to do so Bart called Chloe and she told us to bring you here and get her here and then she…there was this light from her hands and then you were fine and she was….she was dead." _

"_Dead?" Oliver jumped up and pushed past them into the back room. He stopped in his tracks, the first thing he noticed was Chloe's shirt, drenched in blood lying on the ground. He looked up to see her on the bed, Clark standing over her, washing away the blood that had poured from the gunshot wound that she had. "Is she…" He took one more step forward but couldn't bring himself to get any closer. Clark looked over at him. _

"_Yeah." He nodded throwing the bloody towel in the trash can beside him. "But she'll wake up." He smiled slightly and motioned for Bart to hand him another towel._

"_What do you mean she'll wake up, what did she do to me?" Oliver pushed himself into the room and sat on the bed next to her, pushing hair out of her face as Clark explained. _

"_She has a meteor power." He told them as he dressed the wound and changed her clothes. "She can heal people, except when she does it she takes on their injuries." _

"_And she dies from them?" Oliver asked. _

"_If they're fatal." Clark looked over at him. _

"_So you mean if she hadn't…then I would have…" Oliver took in a deep breath. "How does she wake up?" _

"_We don't know." Clark shrugged. "She just does. The first time I took a few hours, the last time it took eighteen. I just don't know." _

_Oliver nodded and made himself comfortable at Chloe's bedside. He grabbed her hand and ignored the fact that it was cold and slightly clammy. He looked at her face and thought if he could pretend she was breathing, he could pretend she was sleeping. "Guys." Clark said quietly motioning for the others to leave the room with him and leave Oliver with Chloe. _

"How long was I out that time?" Chloe asked not really remembering.

"Twenty nine hours, forty seven minutes." Oliver reminded her. "I thought you weren't going to wake up. Clark had to leave after fifteen and I just sat there waiting. I was so mad at you."

"Mad?" Chloe looked at him confused.

"For doing that, for doing that for me." Oliver shook his head at her. "For being you."

"I was supposed to let you die?" Chloe asked him.

"You were supposed to tell me the truth." Oliver glanced away from her as the memory changed to a day later.

_Chloe woke up rapidly as if she'd been dunked in ice water. One second her heart was still, the next second it was beating normally. She gasped, sat straight up and tried to control her breathing as she looked around the room frantically. "Thank God." She heard beside her and turned to find Oliver leaning back in his seat his shoulders slumping. He ran his hands over his face, Chloe saw two days worth of stubble on his cheeks. "You're killing me here Sidekick." _

_  
"Maybe not the best choice of words right now." Chloe panted, her breathing starting to even out._

"_Not funny." He shook his head. "We're gonna have a serious talk after Dr. Gavin checks you out from head to toe." _

"_No." Chloe shook her head vehemently. "Oliver I don't pretend to understand this but the last thing I want right now is to be poked and prodded ok?" _

_They stared at each other for a minute before Oliver nodded subtly. "Fine, not today but at some point you'll get a full work up?" _

"_Sometime." She nodded. "I'll check my schedule and get back to you." _

"_I'll go let everyone know you're fine." He got up and stretched. Chloe could hear his back pop._

"_Please tell me you haven't been in that chair since…how long have I been out?" She asked him. _

"_29 hours." Oliver growled. "And I sat in that chair for each minute of it." _

"_Amateur." Chloe scoffed. "Didn't Clark tell you the drill?" _

"_Yeah but how was I supposed to go about my normal day while you were lying on my bed with no pulse?" _

"_Don't." Chloe closed her eyes. "That's not fair. It's not that Clark doesn't care, he's seen it before ok, a lot, so he has to kind of detach himself from it." _

"_Why didn't you tell me?" Oliver asked her. _

"_I just couldn't." Chloe shrugged. _

"_Yeah, ok." Oliver nodded. "Clark said you usually got hungry when you woke up so I'll send Bart out for some food, let everyone know you're alright." _

"_That sounds good." Chloe smiled. "I think I'm gonna take a shower." She winced and Oliver stood up and walked to the door. _

"_You really scared me Watchtower." He said in a whisper. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever…I can't lose you ok?" _

_Chloe felt a lump in her throat and nodded slowly. "Ok." Oliver nodded and walked out of the room. Chloe sat on the bed for a second then pulled herself to the edge. The strain on her face was evident as she pushed her legs down to rest her feet on the ground._

"What's going on?" Oliver looked over at Chloe who sighed.

She never wanted him to know about this part. He blamed himself enough for her pain when she healed one of them but if he knew how much it really hurt, he'd never let her do it again. "I died Oliver." Chloe explained. "All of me. That means that my heart stopped beating, it stopped pumping blood through my veins, through my muscles. My nerves shut off and my body shut down. Only when I woke up, so did all that other stuff. Everything turns back on all at once, heart, blood, nerves, it takes a while for it to get back to normal."

"So you're in pain?" Oliver asked her.

"Not a lot." Chloe lied to him and he turned his attention to the memory as if to prove to her she was wrong.

_It had taken five minutes to get from the bed to the bathroom door. Tears were streaming down Chloe's face as she worked through the pain of coming back to life. When she finally got into the bathroom and closed the door, she slumped against it, sliding to the ground, sobbing. She reached up to the counter, where she'd laid her pills out before hand and grabbed the bottle. She took two, a dry swallow that almost gagged her but she knew that she had to do it. A soft knock on the bathroom door startled her and she jumped slightly. "Chloe?" Oliver's voice came through. "You ok?" _

_She wiped her eyes and prayed her voice wouldn't betray her. "Fine." She said surprisingly steady. "I'll be out in about fifteen minutes ok?" _

"_Ok." Oliver said before walking away. Chloe took a deep breath and tried to stand up again, she couldn't so instead she clawed at the floor, pulling herself toward bathtub._

"I can't do this." Oliver turned away. "I can't watch this." He was angry with her again. Chloe could tell. He was mad and he felt guilty and he didn't know which was better. "This is what I do Chloe, can't you see?"

"No, I can't." Chloe said as once again the scene changed and they were brought back to that alleyway. "All I've seen today were a lot of unfortunate situations that were not your fault." Oliver rolled his eyes at her. "Is that why you gave up? Is that why you fired everyone? I don't understand." Chloe sighed. "And where the hell is this place, we've been here like three times." She snapped. "Why do you keep bringing us here?" She turned to Mark.

"I'm not bringing you here." Mark inclined his head to Oliver. "He is."

"Why?" Chloe asked the both of them.

"Because it's important." Mark explained.

_The alley was a typical alley, one you see at every turn in the city. There were two dumpsters, both overflowing, both covered in graffiti, both smelling worse than rotten cheese left out in the Sub Saharan sun for months. What made this alley different from all the other alleys in the city was that this one was occupied by more than just rats and roaches. To say the blond looked out of place was putting it lightly, like saying Shaq blends in walking the streets of Tokyo. _

_Her long trench coat was slightly wet from the earlier brief rainstorm, it wasn't enough rain to clean the asphalt of dirt and grime but merely enough to create small haphazard puddles of mud and muck with the occasional rotting hamburger left over from yesterdays lunch rush thrown in. _

_She clutched the envelope to her chest, her eyes darting back and forth so rapidly it wasn't possible to take much in. She was nervous that much was obvious to anyone watching but hopefully no one was watching, no one else anyway Oliver though from his rooftop perch. _

_He decided it was time to put her at ease and he attached his cable and rappelled into the alley. "Where you followed?" He asked, his voice synthesizer making the sentence more menacing than he intended. _

_She jumped in surprise and turned around clutching the envelope tighter. "No, I don't think so." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I feel like I'm in a bad spy movie. We should have a code word or something." _

"_Like the geese fly at midnight?" Oliver joked. _

"_Something like that." She relaxed a little more. _

"_How do you think I feel? I run around town in green leather and a mask fighting crime." He laughed. "Is that everything?"  
_

"_The last of it." She nodded handing him the folder. _

"It's just a meeting, in an alleyway." Chloe said confused. "Nothing happened here."

"Tell her Oliver." Mark prompted and Oliver glared at him before turning to the alleyway.

"I lied to her." Oliver said. "I stood on that spot right there." He motioned to the alley. "In twenty second's I'll lie to her."

"_Everything's set. You'll leave tomorrow. The house is already for you guys and the boys have been enrolled in school. You'll have two weeks to settle in before you and your husband start your new jobs." He grabbed her shoulder. "Everything's going to be ok." _

"_I still don't understand how you got Mr. Queen to hire both of us and pay for the move." She shook her head. _

"_We're old friends." Oliver shrugged. "And he knows what you did, he wanted to help." _

"_Well I wasn't going to just sit by after I found out what Mr. Luther was doing." She shrugged. "That makes me sound so magnanimous. I did it for Julia." _

_Oliver just nodded. "Well hopefully your espionage days are over." Oliver said. A siren blared down the street and he inclined his head. "That's my cue." _

"_Thank you for everything." She said. _

"_You did all the work." Oliver smiled at her. "Have a good life." _

_  
"You too." She nodded walking out of the alley as Oliver pulled himself back up to the rooftop. _

"But what…" Chloe was still confused.

"This is why I quit." He said softly.

Chloe looked between the scene and Oliver. "I don't understand." She said again.

"This isn't why you quit." Mark walked up and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not this meeting that's so important, it's what happened next. Are you ready now?"

"Ready for what?" Chloe asked as Oliver took a deep breath and nodded at Mark. The alley way vanished and suddenly they were in a cemetery. The sun was so bright that Chloe had to cover her eyes to see anything. Oliver walked off toward her left and she followed him. They stopped just outside a group of mourners in black. Further beyond the group, standing somewhat out of sight Chloe saw Oliver staring at the service with a grim look on his face.

"It was so bright." Oliver squinted. "I remember thinking it shouldn't have been bright, it should have been raining."

A coffin was being lowered to the ground and beside the coffin Chloe saw a picture. "That's the woman from the alley." She looked over at Oliver confused and he nodded at her.

"This is three days after that." He turned away, unable to watch the whole thing unfold again. "Her name was Amanda Seybold. She was a secretary at LutherCorp. I found her when I helped her sister escape a 33.1 lab. She died shortly after I got her out, she'd been in there too long and I didn't get to her in time to stop Lex from…anyway. I found out about her sister, and then I found out her sister had a job at LutherCorp and I thought that she would be perfect."

"For what?" Chloe shook her head confused.

"To help me. She was pretty innocuous in the company. She didn't really have any work friends, she did what she was supposed to do and stayed off the radar, she was perfect. I approached her one night as she left the building. I told her what Lex was doing, what Lex had done to her sister and people like her and I asked for her help. I just needed her to copy some files, sneak them out, no big deal." Oliver shrugged. "She did it, no questions asked. She always knew her sister was special but she didn't know why until I told her and when she found out what Lex was doing she wanted to help. She brought me the files I asked for and I thought that would be that but she insisted she could help more. She could stay on the inside, she could see things I couldn't, find things I couldn't. Against my better judgment I agreed."

"Oliver she wanted to help you." Chloe shook her head.

"It worked great for a few months, but then Lex started getting suspicious. It was time to get her out of there. I arranged everything for her. Got her husband a job at a Queen Industries company in Idaho, found her a house, practically moved her in myself but she…she wanted to do one more job. She said there were files she could get me, files she knew had important information but if she'd taken them before, Lex would have known. She said she didn't have anything to lose this time so I agreed. The day before she was supposed to leave she met me in that alley and she handed me those files. Three hours later…" Oliver's voice cracked and he closed his eyes. "Three hours later, her seventeen year old son found her sitting in the car in their driveway. Her throat had been slashed."

Chloe brought her hands up to her mouth and gasped. "Oliver you can't…" She reached a hand out to him and he pulled away from her. They both sat there silent watching the funeral in the background. "It was her wasn't it?" Oliver turned to Chloe. "You told the guys you were onto something big, it was her." He nodded. "And when she died…"

"I just couldn't do it anymore." Oliver admitted. "She wasn't like us. She didn't have super powers or Meta powers. She was a secretary from Metropolis. I put her in the middle of a fight she had no way of realizing the true magnitude of, I put her life in danger and I got her killed." He was breathing heavily now. "So yeah I shut it down."

"And you think that's going to work do you?" Mark asked suddenly. "You think that's going to make everything better?"

"It's all I can do." Oliver said. "It's the only way I can be sure that my friends, my family, is safe."

"Is that what you think?" Mark looked at him almost pityingly. Oliver nodded and Mark shrugged. "Ok, then let's find out if that's true."

"What does that mean?" Oliver asked him.

"It's time for me to take over." Mark rubbed his hands together.


	5. Chapter 5

"No more memories, no more past. Now it's the future, it's what could be." Mark explained to them. "This is your future, well both of your futures actually, based on Oliver's current path. The futures a broad place so I'll be jumping around quite a bit but the ride should be a little smoother, I've done this before." He smiled at the two of them and they were jolted from the graveyard straight into Oliver's penthouse, no spinning, no fading they were just there.

_Oliver walked into the room completely absorbed in his book when he looked up to see Chloe on his couch. "You're making a habit of this." He sighed. _

"_Yeah well, I don't care." Chloe stood up. "You aren't going to get rid of me that easily. You can fire as many people as you want, I'm not going anywhere." _

_  
"Chloe I really don't want to get into this again with you. It's over and done with and I'm not going to change my mind." He set the book down. _

_  
"That's not why I'm here." She told him. "That's what the past six visits have been about but I can't keep fighting a losing battle. I know that now." _

"_So then, what are you doing here?" Oliver asked. _

_  
"I miss you." She said simply. "I miss my friend, I miss my…before everything happened I thought we were heading somewhere, you and I, I thought we were getting closer and maybe."_

"We were." Oliver assured her moving a few steps closer. "We are." He corrected himself.

"_But you just stopped. You stopped calling, you stopped e-mailing. I thought you might not want to go down that path anymore and that's fine." She rushed to assure him. "That's ok, but I don't want to lose my friend." _

"_Look." He stepped up until he was right in front of her. "I do want to go down that path. I want to see where it will take us but I need some time, there are things I need to do before I'm ready to do that." _

_  
"What things?" Chloe asked helplessly. _

"_I can't…I just need to be sure about something first ok." Oliver smiled down at her and she nodded. What else could she do? Oliver leaned down slowly and pressed a tentative kiss to her lips before moving back and stepping away. "I'll find you, when I'm ready." _

"_Ok." Chloe nodded._

Oliver and Chloe couldn't look at each other. Ever since she'd gotten out of that place, since she'd been with Oliver they'd been getting closer and closer to that point. At the present time they'd yet to admit it out loud, they definitely hadn't kissed and it was strange to see that moment played out in front of them.

_Oliver stared at the Green Arrow suit in front of him and took a deep breath before putting it on for the last time. He suited up and left the room, he was in the clock tower so he must have been in Metropolis. He wound his way through the city, pulled something out of his pocket, read it quickly then adjusted his position. He finally spotted the rooftop he was looking for and made his way over to it. He got in position then pulled his bow from behind his bag, lining up his shot checking the wind, adjusting for drag, and then waited. _

"What's going on here?" Chloe asked confused.

"Why don't you tell her?" Mark said to Oliver.

"I don't know." Oliver shrugged.

"Isn't this your plan?" Mark walked around to the other Oliver, the one with the bow and arrow. "Your real plan?"

"I don't have a plan." Oliver shook his head.

"You can't lie to me." Mark scolded him. "Not in here." He added.

"If you know so much you tell me what I'm doing." Oliver crossed his arms over his chest.

"I thought it was obvious." Mark rolled his eyes. "You're about to murder Lex Luther."

Oliver's face didn't register as much surprise as Chloe was hoping it would, as much as her own face did. "Excuse me." She said to Mark.

"He's going to kill Lex. Assassinate whatever." Mark explained motioning to the building across the street where the doors were opening.

"He wouldn't do that." Chloe shook her head.

_Lex walked out of the building into the cool air and took a deep breath as he waiting for his car to come around. Oliver slightly relaxed his grip on his bow to pull out his cell phone. He pushed a few buttons and then waited. Down on the street, Lex pulled his phone out of his pocket and read something off the screen before looking up confused, scanning the rooftops until he spotted Oliver. There wasn't time to run or hide or do much of anything as Oliver released the string and set the arrow flying dead on target as it pierced Lex's heart. Oliver was gone before Lex even hit the ground. _

"Oh God." Chloe gasped at the scene. "You wouldn't do that. Tell him you wouldn't do that."

"You would." Mark disagreed. "To make sure Chloe was safe; to make sure everyone was safe you would."

Chloe looked in disgust from Mark to Oliver who was staring at the scene on the street, the dead body of Lex Luther. "To protect you?" He turned to Chloe. "You bet your ass I would."

She shook her head in disbelief. "The thing that he said he had to do before we could be together, it was that wasn't it?" Chloe asked Mark who nodded.

"He shows up at your apartment the next day with flowers and a bottle of wine and deep down you always suspect that's what it was but you don't let yourself truly believe it, you can't." Mark said.

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Because you love him." Mark told her as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. Mark turned his attention elsewhere and the alleyway changed to a scene of Chloe and Oliver's first date, then their third, then their fourth. Oliver coughed as he watched himself lower Chloe down on his bed and glared at Mark.

"I know it technically hasn't happened yet but I'm pretty sure it's still private." He pointed out.

"Right sorry." Mark winced. "Just move forward a bit." Suddenly everything was speeding by, Chloe and Oliver's life together flashed before them as if it were a DVD on fast forward. It slowed a bit and Chloe saw herself standing with Oliver in front of her holding out a ring box. "Ah, the engagement. Don't want to give too much away, it'll spoil the surprise." Time sped up again and suddenly they were in a church, Chloe was in a wedding gown walking down the aisle. Mark smiled. "It's a beautiful spring wedding." He told them before he moved on to other days, other years. Suddenly Chloe was in a hospital room, screaming as she gave birth. "Congratulations it's a boy." Mark told them and Chloe held onto Oliver's arm as she watched a child, her child, that had yet to be dreamed up much less conceived grow before her very eyes. "Here we go." Mark said slowing everything down to normal speed.

_Oliver was in the middle of his pitch when he heard the screams from outside the conference room. "I'm sorry Ms. Queen but he's in a meeting." _

_  
"I don't care if the fucking President of the United States is in there; I need to see my husband." Chloe screamed back. _

"_Gentlemen." Oliver sighed. "If you'll excuse me for just a moment." He bowed out of the room and walked over to Chloe who looked pretty frantic. _

"_Oliver." She said relieved and threw herself in his arms. _

"_What's going on?" He asked confused. _

_  
"It's Chase." Chloe gasped out as tears fell down her face. "I went to pick him up from school and he wasn't there, the teachers didn't know where he was, I called his friends, I called everyone and no one… then I got this." She pulled out her phone and showed it to him. It was a picture of Chase, Oliver's ten year old son blindfolded and tied to a chair. It had four o'clock written underneath the picture and Oliver checked the time. It was 2:45. _

"_Did you call the police?" He asked Chloe trying to calm her down. _

_  
"No, I didn't know if I should." She looked up at him. "I didn't know if might be because…" She let it hang in the air. If it might be because of him, because of the Green Arrow. Even though he hadn't worn the suit in over ten years, he still had enemies out there. _

"_Call the police." Oliver told her. "Call them now." _

_Chloe nodded and Oliver's secretary handed her the phone. Chloe took a shaky breath when someone answered. "Yes I'd like to report a kidnapping." She said._

_Suddenly Chloe was somewhere else, sitting in a room on a bed holding a small stuffed dinosaur. Oliver stood in the doorway. "You need to eat." _

_  
"I'm not hungry." She shook her head. _

"_Chloe…" Oliver closed his eyes. _

_  
"It's been three days and they don't know anything?" She turned to him, her anger gone at this point, the only emotion she had any energy left for was hope. _

_  
"They're working really hard." Oliver tried to soothe her, sitting down on the bed next to her. _

"_It's all over the news, it's…they don't even have a single lead?" Chloe laid her head on Oliver's chest. "Just, let me call him." _

_  
"No." Oliver said firmly. "The police can handle this." Chloe scoffed. "I don't want him involved in this." _

_  
"This isn't about you Oliver. This is about our son, about getting him back, about keeping him safe. For one second could you just put away your stupid…I'm calling him." She pulled away from Oliver and grabbed the cell phone out of her pocket. _

_Oliver looked around the empty kids room and then back at Chloe who looked like she'd aged ten years in three day. "Fine." He said stiffly and got up to walk out of the room. _

_Chloe let out a sigh of relief and dialed an all too familiar number. All she had to say was one word when the phone picked up, even after all these years. "Clark?" She pleaded and before the work finished coming out of her mouth she felt wind behind her, strong arms wrap around her. She turned to see Superman standing in her son's room and she broke down in relief. "I need you." She whispered to him. _

"_I've just been waiting for your call." He kissed the top of her head and the speed out of the room. _

"He found Chase two hours later." Mark said. "Got him home safe and sound. He was a kid, they bounce back from stuff like that you know but you two weren't so lucky. You tried, you really did." He said sadly as time moved forward again faster and faster and Chloe could barely keep track of everything. She was pregnant, then giving birth, another boy, then a girl. She managed to catch moments, small scenes, Chloe lying in bed alone long after she'd put the kids to sleep. Chloe and Oliver fighting, screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, Oliver staying later and later at the office. "Almost there." Mark said as Chloe watched her marriage unravel at her feet. "There we are."

_Chloe walked into the Penthouse carrying a handful of grocery bags. "I got that mom." She looked up and saw a tall boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old walking toward her. He took the bags from her and she stopped when she heard raised voices down the hall coming from Oliver's office. _

"_What's going on?" Chloe asked Chase who shrugged as he made his way to the kitchen. _

_Chloe walked down the hall slowly, trying to catch some part of the conversation when suddenly the voice was familiar to her. "Bruce?" She pushed the door open and stepped in. The previous conversation ground to a screeching halt. "I thought that was you?" _

"_Hey Chloe." Bruce smiled and walked over to give her a hug. "How have you been? Long time no see." He said sheepishly. _

"_I'm fine." Chloe looked between Oliver and Bruce confused. "Is everything ok in here?" _

_  
"Yes, Bruce was just leaving." Oliver walked around the desk to the door. _

"_So that's it, you aren't even going to consider it?" Bruce turned to Oliver._

"_No." Oliver shook his head and Bruce walked out of the office. _

"_What was that about?" Chloe asked Oliver confused._

"_Nothing, don't worry about it." Oliver smiled weakly at her. "You're home early." _

"_Chase has a game tonight." Chloe reminded him. "I figured we could ride together." _

"_I've got a lot of work to do Chloe." Oliver sighed. _

"_You promised him." Chloe put her hands on her hips. _

"_I'll do my best. You should go ahead without me." Oliver sat back down at his desk and went back to his computer, effectively dismissing her. Chloe shook her head and walked out. She jogged through the living room and caught up to Bruce just as he was leaving. "Hey, seriously what was that back there?"_

_Bruce sighed; he'd learned long ago he couldn't get anything past Chloe. "I'm having some problems in Gotham. Bat problems, I was hoping Oliver would air out the suit and help me." _

_Chloe sighed. "He didn't even consider it?" _

"_Not for one second." Bruce shook his head. _

"_How bad?" Chloe asked and when Bruce didn't say anything she realized just how bad. "You know, my husband's not the only former hero I have on speed dial. You want me to round up the cavalry?" _

"_No. Thanks for the offer though." Bruce smiled at her for a second and then hugged her again, kissing her forehead. "Bye Chloe." _

"_Bye." Chloe whispered wondering why that simple word felt so final. _

_***********_

"_Chloe have you seen my briefcase?" Oliver walked into the living room looking around. "Chloe? Earth the Chloe." He stopped beside her where she seemed to be glued to the television set. "Hey what's…?" _

_  
"Again, we're coming to you with breaking news, Batman, whose identity has been revealed to be none other than Bruce Wayne was killed last night in an attempt to…" _

_  
"Oh God, Chloe." Oliver reached out for her and she flinched pulling back. "Chloe?" _

_  
She turned on him, eyes blazing with tears and anger. "He came to you for help." She choked out. "He came to you and you…" She shook her head, tears falling and then walked away from him. _

_***********_

_Oliver was sitting in his office with a glass of scotch when the door opened and Chloe walked in, her face expressionless. "My flight leaves in an hour, I'll be back tomorrow." _

_  
"Back from where?" Oliver asked confused. _

_Chloe looked at him astonished. "The funeral." Oliver seemed to comprehend then. "The nanny's here, she'll take care of the kids." _

"_You aren't taking them?" Oliver looked confused. "Bruce was Chases' Godfather." _

"_Yes but I'm not bringing my children to Gotham City." Chloe said as if that was obvious._

_  
Oliver nodded absently. Since the death of Batman the city had turned into a war zone. "I'm not sure I want you going to Gotham City." _

_Chloe glared at him, the first bit of emotion she'd shown since she got heard the news. "I'm going to Bruce's funeral." She buttoned up her coat. _

****************

"_What are these?" Oliver asked confused looking at the envelope that Chloe had just dropped on his desk as he opened it. Chloe didn't say anything. He pulled the pages out and read them, his frown getting deeper. "Divorce papers?" Oliver looked up at her. _

"_This can't be that much of a surprise to you honestly." Chloe sighed. _

"_It can't be?" Oliver asked astonished. "Because I'm damn surprised here." _

"_Really?" Chloe looked up at him. "Oliver this has, this has been coming for a while now." _

"_No it hasn't." He looked at her. "Not for me." _

"_I'm taking the kids to the beach house, its summer vacation for them so that will give me time to arrange a house and get everything moved. I want it to be a smooth transition for them." _

_  
"You're taking the kids and leaving?" Oliver asked trying to catch up with them. "You're getting a house?" _

_  
"Did you think we would live together after the divorce?" Chloe smiled sadly at him. _

"_Considering I just learned about the divorce a minute ago, I hadn't really thought that far ahead." _

_  
"Either way Oliver I can't keep them in the city." Chloe shook her head. "Not now." _

_  
"What does that mean?" He asked her confused._

"You can't honestly say you don't see what's happening? What started happening after Gotham fell?" Chloe said. "It won't be long until Star City follows and I won't have my kids here when that happens." She walked out of the room, effectively cutting off any rebuttal that Oliver could make, though there was none. She was right of course. When Batman died and Gotham fell it turned into a war zone, crime and poverty swept through the city and the ones lucky enough to get out while they could never looked back.

_It was almost as if all the major cities in the world followed suit, Star City among them. Oliver wouldn't even walk around after dark anymore, he definitely didn't want his wife or kids doing it. He looked down at the divorce papers in his hands citing irreconcilable differences as the reason but Oliver knew that it really meant that Chloe was tired of pretending that she was ok being married to the man that Oliver really was and not the man she hoped he was. _

_*************_

_Oliver turned the car off and climbed out, stretching slightly. It felt like the first time he'd been on his feet all day. Before he could finish his stretch however, he was almost knocked over by an eight year old girl screaming, "Daddy!" at the top of her lungs. He smiled and bent down to pick her up, feeling her brother slam into his legs only seconds after he'd lifted the girl off the ground. _

"_Dad!" The boy wrapped his arms around Oliver's legs and he smiled, patting him on the head as he got assaulted with kisses from the girl in his arms. _

"_You're late." A stern voice said in front of him and Oliver looked up into the eyes of his ex-wife. _

"_I'm sorry Chloe." He sighed, setting the girl down. "I got held up at work." _

"_Three hours late." Chloe said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know I don't like to be in the park after dark."_

_Oliver wanted to remind her that she could just as easily drop the kids off at his place instead of insisting they meet to exchange children in the middle of the city but she hadn't been to the penthouse since she moved out. "Where's Chase?" Is what he said instead. _

"_He's at the movies with some of his friends." Chloe handed Oliver two overnight bags, one for each of the kids and he took them from her. "His weekend curfew is one but he's usually in before that. He'll go straight to your place." _

"_No." Oliver sighed. "He'll go straight to your place and pretend to have forgotten that it was my weekend, then he'll claim it's too late to drive all the way back to the city and he'll get out of it, once again." Oliver sighed. Chloe didn't have anything to say to that because that's what Chase had done the past three times it was Oliver's weekend. "He hates me." _

"_He's seventeen." Chloe smiled slightly. "He hates everything." _

_Oliver opened his mouth to say something when he felt a tug on his pants. "Dad!" Oliver looked down. "When we get to your place, can I show you the cool new karate moves Uncle Bart taught me?" Oliver looked between his son and Chloe, who had the decency to look away. _

"_Sure. Ryan take Anna and help her get strapped into the car ok?" Ryan nodded and grabbed his sisters hand, helping her in the car. Oliver looked up at Chloe. "Bart's still babysitting for them? You know how I feel about that, I don't want…those people around my kids." _

_Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Are you forgetting that I'm one of those people?" She said, knowing that he meant Meta's. "And genetically there's a fifty fifty change that your kids will be one too." _

"_But they're not yet, and I don't want them exposed to it before they need to be." Oliver pointed out. _

"_Yeah, well I need someone I can trust to keep them safe." Chloe countered._

"_I've told you, I'll hire bodyguards." Oliver pointed out to her. _

"_No." She said sternly. "I want my children safe, but I want them to at least have the illusion of a care free childhood." She glared at Oliver. "Besides, the Bodyguards didn't help when Chase was taken." _

_Oliver cringed. "We got Chase back." _

"_Superman got Chase back." Chloe said before she could stop herself. _

_  
"Why do you always do that?" Oliver snapped at her. "Every time I…no you know what I'm tired, I don't want to fight tonight." He ran his hands over his face and sighed. _

"_You look like shit." Chloe smiled weakly. "Are you eating ok? Sleeping good?" Oliver raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm just…I'm worried about you Ollie." _

_Oliver glared at her. "You know when you handed me those divorce papers, you lost the right to worry about me anymore." _

_Chloe stiffened then relaxed. "Ryan has a soccer game tomorrow at ten at Fletcher's Park, don't forget and the ceremony starts at seven, I packed them dress clothes." _

"_Ceremony?" Oliver looked at her confused and Chloe closed her eyes. _

"_Chase's high school graduation." _

_  
"Right." Oliver nodded; he couldn't believe he'd forgotten that. "Seven o'clock." She smiled sadly at him. "So big weekend plans?" _

"_No, just work." She shook her head. _

"_You're not still doing that story on Gentleman Johnny are you?" Oliver asked. _

"_How do you know about that?" Chloe turned to him sharply. _

"_I told your editor to drop that story, take you off it." _

"_You did what?" She asked him. "You can't just butt into my life Oliver, my career."_

"_I'm looking out for you Chlo. This guy is bad news, he's the biggest crime boss Star City's ever seen and he's ruthless." _

"_Well, as you pointed out, since we aren't married anymore, you don't get to look out for me. Besides, it's not like anyone else is trying to take this guy down." She turned to walk away and Oliver sighed, tossing the bags in the trunk and getting in the car. "So who's up for ice cream?" _

"_We haven't had dinner yet." Ryan pointed out, not looking up from his video game._

"_Ok, then dinner…" Oliver put the car in drive and started to leave the park when Anna screamed. _

"_Wait!" She was unbuckling her seat belt and Oliver slammed on the breaks. _

_  
"What?" He turned around to look at her. _

"_I forgot my dance bag." Anna said. "It's in mom's car. I have practice tomorrow." Before Oliver could stop her, she was out of the car and running to where Chloe had parked. _

_Chloe wiped her eyes, even after two years she hated this part, the dropping them off, going home without them. What was worse was waking up tomorrow and not having them there. She tried to find her keys in her bag when she heard a small sound behind her. "Ms. Queen, you're a hard woman to get alone." Chloe froze in fear and turned slowly to see a smiling face right behind her. "You know who I am?" He asked. _

"_Gentleman Johnny." Chloe whispered. _

"_Good. That makes this easier." He pulled a gun out of his jacket and smiled. "You're making a lot of trouble for me, a lot of trouble." _

"_Sorry." Chloe said, though the tone in her voice let him know she was anything but. _

"_You should feel special. It's been such a long time since I've deemed anyone important enough to kill personally." _

"_Look…" Chloe started to talk but was cut off by a familiar voice. _

"_Mom! Wait!" Anna was running to the car and Chloe turned to Gentleman Johnny, her face awash with fear. "My dance bag."_

"_Look, if you're going to kill me, that's fine, but that's my daughter. Her father's car is right over there. Let me give her the bag, she'll leave, please." Chloe pleaded with him. "Just don't let her see…"_

_Gentleman Johnny looked at the eight year old running towards them and lowered the gun out of sight. "I'm not a monster Ms. Queen." He stepped back a little into the shadows. "But if you try anything."_

"_I won't." Chloe assured him and turned around to Anna, forcing a smile on her face. "Hey pumpkin." _

"_We forgot my dance bag." Anna said, panting slightly from her run._

"_It's in the trunk." Chloe said. She moved shakily to the back of the car, it took three tries to get the key in the lock but she managed. She grabbed the dance bag and turned to Anna. "Here." Suddenly realizing what was about to happen, Chloe dropped to her knees and pulled the girl in for a crushing hug. _

"_Mom." Anna whined and Chloe could feel the tears fall from her eyes. _

_She pulled away just far enough to kiss Anna's forehead. "This one's for your brothers." She said, kissing her again. _

"_Ewe, I'm not kissing them." Anna squirmed. _

"_Please!" Chloe said, tears falling now. "For me." _

_Anna looked at her mom and nodded, she'd never seen her this sad. "Are you ok?" She asked. _

"_I'm just gonna miss you." Chloe smiled. "That's all. Look, I need you to do something for me, can you do that?" _

"_Sure." Anna said wearily. _

_  
"I need you to tell your daddy that I love him ok? I need you to tell him that I love him, and that he needs to take good care of you guys ok?" _

"_Ok." Anna said. _

_  
"Tell him…" Chloe started but was cut off when an arm yanked her to a standing position. _

"_That's enough." The gruff voice of Gentleman Johnny made Anna jump slightly and Chloe reached out a hand to pat her shoulder in reassurance. "Get lost kid." _

_Anna looked between the man and her mom. Chloe nodded as her, crying even harder now and Anna turned, heading back to her dad's car. Oliver took the bag from her and dropped it in the trunk as she climbed into the backseat. He reached in to buckle her and she waved him away. "Wait." She leaned over the seat and kissed Ryan on the head, confusing both the boy and Oliver. _

"_Ewe, what was that for?" Ryan wiped his forehead. _

"_Mommy told me to do that." _

"_So." Ryan glared at his sister as Oliver strapped her into the booster seat. _

"_So, I promised." Anna turned to Oliver. "She told me to tell you something too Daddy, it was important." _

"_Ok." Oliver looked down at Anna. _

"_She said to tell you that she loved you." _

"_She what?" Oliver stopped and looked at his daughter confused. "She said she loved me?" _

"_Yep." Anna nodded. "And she said to tell you to take real good care of us." _

"_What is that supposed to mean?" Oliver asked confused, thinking it over in his head. _

"_I don't know." Anna shrugged. "I think she was gonna say something else but the mean man made her stop." _

"_Mean man?" Oliver looked slightly alarmed now._

"_Yeah, he made her cry and then he called me kid." Anna lifted her chin up. "I'm not a kid." _

"_Sure you are." Ryan snorted. "You're only eight." _

_Chloe hadn't told him she loved him in years, why would she suddenly profess her love through their eight year old daughter, and who was the mean man. Alarmingly everything became far too clear when he heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots, coming from the direction where Chloe had parked. Ice cold fear spread through Oliver's veins and he turned to his kids. "Stay in the car, lock the door, and don't open it unless I tell you to ok?" _

_Ryan nodded as Oliver slammed the door closed and took off in the direction of Chloe's car, sliding to an ungraceful stop as he saw her, lying on the dirty concrete ground, blood pooling out from under her. "Chloe." He whispered as he made his way over to her and knelt down. "Chloe!" He almost smiled in relief when he saw her eyes were open. He pulled out his phone and called 911, reporting the shooting and telling them where to send the paramedics. "They'll be here soon." _

"_Response time to the park after dark is forty five minutes." Chloe croaked. "I'm not gonna make it." _

"_Don't say that." Oliver snapped at her. "Don't you say that." He was applying pressure to her wounds as she smiled slightly, bringing a blood stained hand up to his cheek. She coughed and blood ran down the side of her mouth. "Who did this to you?" He asked, his breath coming too fast, his hands working too slow, he couldn't seem to stop the bleeding. _

"_Gentleman…" Chloe trailed off. _

"_Gentleman Johnny?" Oliver asked surprised. Chloe nodded. _

"_My planner." She told him. "In the car, on the seat." _

"_What?" Oliver looked over at her car. "Does it have evidence in it?" He asked confused. _

"_Schedules." Chloe said. "For the kids." She coughed again. "Listen, Ryan has soccer on Wednesday and Friday and Anna has dance Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Saturday." _

"_Shh, don't waste your breath sweetie." Oliver cried as blood seemed to gush out of the wound flowing through his fingers._

"_It's important." Chloe smiled. "Anna has a Dentist appointment next Monday, she hates the dentist so if she's good we go out for ice cream after." Oliver shook his head at her. "All the contact numbers are in my planner, school, doctors, everything. Now listen, this is important." Oliver focused on her. "Chase's tuition check is in my desk drawer, it has to be mailed by the nineteenth or he loses his dorm assignment ok?" _

"_Stop it." Oliver said to her. "Stop talking like you won't be here." _

"_I was gonna drive him up." Chloe could feel the tears falling now. "Spend the day with him, help him get settled. You'll have to do it now." _

"_You'll be here." Oliver shook his head. "You'll take him." _

"_No." She coughed again, more blood came out. "You'll take him." _

"_Where's the god damn ambulance?" Oliver croaked out. _

"_I love you Ollie, I never stopped." She said quietly before her head fell to the side and her breathing stopped. Her eyes stared unfocused, unseeing at the underside of her car and Oliver lost it. _

_***************_

"_Hey." Lois stood in the doorway to Oliver's office watching him stare into nothing in the dark room. "The last people just left. We'll clean up and then head out." _

"_You don't have to do that." He rubbed his hands over his face, grateful far more than he could express for Lois' help today. Oliver was ready to call this the worst day of his life and it wasn't over yet. He'd buried his ex-wife, the love of his life that afternoon, then had to come home and play host to the multiude of people who flew in from all over the world to pay thier respects. It was harder than he thought it would be, hearing so many people tell him how wonderful Chloe was and how much she was going to be missed. He knew that, he knew that with every fiber of his being and after about two hours he couldn't take it anymore and he retreated to his office. Lois deftly stepped in and took over hosting duties and for that he'd be eternally grateful. "You've done more than enough." _

"_No I didn't." Lois said seriously. _

"_Lois, I…" Oliver was cut off when Anna walked into the room and straight over to Oliver, pulling herself into his lap, a tight grip on her favorite stuffed bunny. "Hey pumpkin." Oliver wrapped his arms around her tight and pulled her close. _

"_Can we go home now daddy?" She looked up at him with such sadness in her eyes and Oliver had to pause before talking, unsure if he could even get a sentence out. _

"_Sweetie you are home." He reminded her. _

"_No I mean my house, mom's house." Anna said._

"_Honey, that's not home anymore, you're gonna be living with Daddy now, here." He said. _

"_We can't live here." Anna shook her head confused. "This is an apartment." _

"_Yeah but we can still live here, you lived her before remember." _

_  
"You don't have a yard for Woodward." Anna pointed out to him and Oliver sighed, he'd forgotten about Woodward, the dog Chloe had gotten the kids after the divorce._

"_Well, we can take him for long walks." Oliver said. "And the park is right around the corner." _

"_NO!" Anna pulled away from him. "We can't take him to the park, don't take him to the park." She screamed. _

"_Sweetie, calm down." Lois bent down to hug her, calm her. "What's wrong?" _

"_We can't take Woodward to the park because they'll shoot him. The bad man will shoot him, and then shoot daddy." She sobbed. "Like he shot mommy." _

"_Calm down." Lois held her tight. "We won't take Woodward to the park ok but listen to me." Lois grabbed Anna face and made her turn around. "No one's going to shoot anyone ok? Not Woodward, or your dad, or your brothers, or me or anyone ok?" _

"_Yeah Anna, you don't have to worry about the bad man anyway." Ryan said. "Because Dad's gonna catch him." Ryan looked up at a startled and confused Oliver. "Aren't you Dad?" _

"_What?" Oliver looked at Ryan. "The police are going to catch him, Ry, not me."_

"_Told you." Chase snorted and Oliver looked between the two boys confused. _

"_What's going on?" Oliver asked. _

"_Mom said it was a really big secret, and we've never told anyone, never ever." Ryan said. _

"_Told you what?" Oliver was even more confused now. _

"_About how you used to be a hero." Ryan was smiling now. "You used to be the Green Arrow, and you saved people and fought the bad guys." _

"_She told you guys about that?" Oliver asked._

"_Yeah, whenever you were late, or just didn't show up at all, she'd tell them stories about how you used to be this great guy, this superhero." Chase snorted again._

"_Chase." Lois snapped at him and he just rolled his eyes._

"_But…" Ryan looked between Chase and his dad confused. "She said you used to…"_

"_Look." Chase said to Ryan. "Used to is the key word in that sentence kid. Obviously he's not anymore. He couldn't even save mom." _

"_Chase." Clark snapped this time from the doorway. "That's enough."_

"_Whatever." Chase sighed and leaned against the doorway. _

"_Maybe you guys should get ready for bed." Lois grabbed Anna's and Ryan's hands._

"_I don't want to stay here." Anna pouted again._

"_Hey, how about this." Lois knelt down. "Maybe your dad will let you pack a bag and come stay at the hotel with me and Uncle Clark?" She brushed some hair out of Anna's eyes. "Your cousins are there. You guys could have ice cream, and watch movies. It'll be like a sleepover." _

_Anna brightened a bit. "Like mom used to do?" _

"_Yeah like your mom used to do." Lois said, tears threatening to fall._

"_But mom used to paint my nails and braid my hair. You can't do that." Anna shook her head. Lois raised an eyebrow. "You don't know how. All you have are boys." _

"_Hey, I am a girl you know." Lois smiled but Anna was resolute._

"_I can braid your hair Anna Banana." Chase pushed himself off the wall. "Come on, let's go pack an overnight bag." _

_Anna nodded and allowed Chase to pick her up and carry her out of the room, Ryan trailing behind them. Oliver hung his head when they were gone. "Oliver, he's just upset." Lois sighed. _

"_No, he's right." He looked up at the group. "I couldn't save her. I used to save random strangers and I couldn't even....this is my fault." _

"_You can't do that." Bart piped up for the first time. "You can't blame yourself for this." Oliver looked over at one of his old friend surprised, he figured if anyone wanted to blame him for Chloe's death it would be Bart. He'd been surprised when he opened the door to see his old team standing in the hallway earlier, they hadn't seen each other since Oliver fired them twenty years ago, although Chloe kept in pretty close contact which bothered Oliver to no end. They all just stared at each other for a minute and, surprisingly Bart spoke up first. "We know how you feel about us and I don't care. We loved Chloe and we love those kids and we're going to be here today whether you like it or not." Oliver was taken aback by how grown up he sounded. __Anna's happy laughter when she saw them is what finally broke Oliver out of his thoughts, he hadn't heard her sound like that since Chloe died and whatever his feelings were toward the guys, whatever issues they had with each other, if they could make his kids happy, they could stay as long as they wanted. _

"_If I hadn't been late she wouldn't have been in the park at night, if we hadn't gotten divorced she wouldn't have been in the park at all, if I'd never quit…" He shook his head. _

"_Hey, I need someone to blame for this too." Lois snapped at him annoyed. "And trust me as much as I want to pin this on you, I can't do that because there are three kids who need you to step up now. You can't wallow in self pity, you can't blame yourself, and you can't hide away. You want to blame someone; blame that son of bitch Gentleman Johnny." She glared at him. "I'll take them tonight, give you time to get your head on straight but tomorrow it's time to be their dad." _

"_We're ready." Chase said from the doorway and Lois turned to him, her expression softened. _

_Oliver walked over to Anna and Ryan and knelt down. "I'll see you guys tomorrow ok?" They nodded and Oliver hugged each of them tightly. "I love you." _

"_Love you too." Anna kissed his cheek. _

"_Love you." Ryan said turning around and walking away. Clark took the two younger kids and led them out of the room as Oliver and Chase stared at each other. _

"_I'm not coming back tomorrow." Chase said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I'm going back to Metropolis with Aunt Lois and Uncle Clark." _

"_What?" Oliver looked at him confused. _

"_I'll live with them during for the summer and in the fall; I'll transfer to Met U." _

"_You can't just decide stuff like this." Oliver shook his head. "You were going to Star City University; you had that internship this summer."_

"_I'm going to Metropolis." Chase said defiantly. "Aunt Lois already said it was ok." _

"_She did huh?" Oliver turned his anger on Lois._

"_Don't get mad at her." Chase snapped. "I didn't give her much of a choice. Moms from Metropolis, she went to Met U. I just, want to go where she went, she what she saw." _

"_Ok, ok." Oliver sighed. "I understand that Chase but tomorrow? You have to leave tomorrow?" _

"_Yeah, I do." Chase nodded. _

"_Son, I…" _

"_Let's not do this dad." Chase shook his head. "Let's not pretend that we both won't be happier with me in another city. I don't have to deal with you anymore and you don't have to deal with me." _

"_Deal with you?" Oliver shook his head. "You're my son, and I love you and I can't lose you and your mother, not so soon after each other." _

_Chase stared at Oliver for a minute before sighing. "You aren't losing me." He shook his head and Oliver seemed to relax. "I'll visit Anna and Ryan." That's not what he was hoping for but he'd take it. Chase just nodded and walked out of the room. No "I love you", no "I'll miss you" not even a hug. _

"_He just needs some time away to clear his head." Lois offered. "He was coming whether I let him stay with us or not so I figured better with us than some place we don't even know."_

"_It's fine." Oliver said, empty, tired, defeated. "It's fine. Thanks for…everything." _

_  
"Hey, what are cousin in laws for?" Lois sighed, gave him a small hug and walked out leaving him all alone in his empty apartment._

"No!" Oliver shook his head as the scene faded. "It won't be like that."

"It could be like that." Mark shrugged.

"I would never let it get to that point." Oliver shook his head. "Divorced, a son who hates me, Chloe…oh God Chloe." Oliver turned around to see Chloe still contemplating the scene quietly. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." She smiled softly. "It's somewhat of a shock you know, seeing your future kids, failed marriage and then death, all at once." She chuckled. "Especially since my future husband and I haven't even been on a date yet."

Oliver cracked a little smile. "I would never let that happen to you." Oliver grabbed her face with his hands. "You know that right, I would never, ever let that happen."

"But you could." Mark pointed out. "That was a glimpse at one possible future, based on choices that you make, wrong choices obviously. One you've already made, setting that possible future into motion."

"What wrong choices?" Oliver asked desperate to stop the scene from coming true.

"Firing your team." Mark said. "Giving up." Oliver looked confused. "Giving up on your calling, on the Green Arrow, on your quest for justice changed you. You weren't the man Chloe fell in love with anymore and you got divorced, you threw yourself into your work and Chase grew to resent you."

"And Chloe died." Oliver said quietly.

"And Chloe died." Mark nodded. "You were right, the future you. If you hadn't divorced, Chloe never would have been in that park."

"That's not his fault." Chloe stuck up for Oliver. "You can't pin that on him. I was working on a story about a mob boss for Christ sake, if he hadn't found me there; he would have found me somewhere else."

"You're missing the point." Mark snapped at her. "If he hadn't quit as Green Arrow, if he'd never formed the JLA, Star City wouldn't even be that way, Gentleman Johnny wouldn't even exist for that story to be written. He would have been picked up ten years before by the Green Arrow, sent to jail for petty larceny and never risen up the ranks in the mob."

"Then someone else would have been there."

"No." Oliver shook his head finally realizing what Mark was trying to tell them. "It's not just Gentleman Johnny is it?" He looked at Chloe. "Don't you see, it's Star City, it's Gotham, it's the world. The park would have never gotten bad, the mob wouldn't even be a threat, I would have stopped it from getting that far."

"Batman wouldn't have died because he would have had back up, you, your team and Gotham would never have spun out of control like that." Mark said. "It's not fair, it's a lot to put on one man's shoulders, but one simple choice can change so much."

"Oliver couldn't be responsible for all that." Chloe shook her head. "No offence."

"None taken." Oliver assured her.

"It's not just Oliver." Mark shook his head. "It's what he represents to the people. What he does, what he stands for makes the citizens of Star City stand up themselves. He does a lot of good it's true, but it's more about the good he inspires others to do. He rallies the community to the point where they won't stand for things like mob rule, high crime rates. They have pride in their city and they work to make it better."

"You said that was one possible future." Oliver said to Mark after a minute. "What if I don't quit?" He asked. "What if I keep going? Keep fighting?"

Mark smiled and the scene faded around them.


	6. Chapter 6

Bart ran into the apartment holding two large bags of take out and froze in place, something very difficult for Bart to do. Even when he was sitting he was always moving something, shaking a foot, tapping a finger, eyes darting back and forth, but not now, now he was completely and utterly still. "Dude." He finally said out loud setting the food on the table. Victor and AC jumped up and turned around guiltily.

"We were just…" AC scratched his head and turned to Victor.

"We were just setting up the X-box." Victor said. "You can have first player." He held out the controller.

"Dude." Bart reiterated and motioned to the scene in front of him.

AC and Victor turned around and frowned at what Bart was seeing. "Well you see, Oliver was hogging the whole couch and we couldn't move him because Chloe's on his bed and Mark took the chair so we decided to sit on the coffee table but then there wasn't any room for the drinks and so…" AC trailed off and Bart shook his head.

Oliver was laying on the couch, completely out like he was when Bart left, Mark was sitting on the chair in his trance or whatever it was he was in and Victor and AC took over the coffee table. Only like they said because they were sitting on the coffee table there was no more room so balanced on Oliver's stomach were two bottles of beer and on his head, a bowl of popcorn. "Dude." Bart said again shaking his head. "You gave me crap when I wanted to go get food and you…" He turned his head. "How did you balance those on his stomach."

"Dude has severely rock hard abs, you can balance an orange on that thing." Victor said shaking his head in amazement.

AC and Bart turned to him surprised. "That came out kind of gay didn't it?" They both nodded. "Anyway, it's not like he knows what's going on."

Bart stared at them for a second before shrugging. "Move the popcorn we need somewhere to put the nachos." He started unpacking the food. "And I call first player."

_

* * *

_

Oliver was having a good dream, a very good dream actually, it involved Chloe, her tongue, lots of whipped cream and…he sniffed, bacon? He opened his eyes and groaned at the very large dog that was currently alternating between licking his neck and breathing his lovely dog food breath right into Oliver's nostrils. "Woodward." Oliver shoved the dog off of his chest and sighed. He heard laughter from the doorway and looked up to see Chloe standing there with two cups of coffee. "You could have pulled him off." Oliver groaned sitting up as she brought the coffee over to him.

"_You looked like you were enjoying it." Chloe teased him. _

"_It's too early for this." He leaned over and kissed her softly. "The kids up?" Chloe tilted her head to the living room and Oliver heard the unmistakably familiar music of some cartoon show getting louder and louder. "It's Saturday, Pancake Day and that's your specialty not mine so rise and shine." _

"_I'll be there in five." Oliver said. _

"_That's fine, I've got to run down to the market and pick up some eggs and milk anyway." Chloe kissed him one last time then left as Oliver stood and tried to wake up a little more. "Hey kids, dad's having some trouble waking up this morning, why don't you go help him out." _

_Oliver barely had time to groan before two small kids came screaming in the room and jumping on him. He laughed as they dragged him down to the mattress. "Come on dad, it's a big day today. I've got soccer and Anna's got dance and Chase is graduating, we need sustenance."_

"_Sustenance really?" Oliver looked at his ten year old son and smiled. _

"_Yeah." Ryan faltered slightly. "It means food right?"_

"_Right." Oliver assured him. "I'm up, I'm up. Come on let's head to the kitchen. Who wants to help today?" Anna raised her hand frantically and Oliver laughed. _

"_Alright Anna Banana." He bent down and lifted her up. He turned to walk out of the room when he almost fell forward as something slammed into his back. He caught himself quickly and realized that something was Ryan. _

"_Piggy back." He said happily and Oliver rearranged Anna so he could carry the both of them. _

"_What kind of pancakes do you guys want?" _

_  
"Chocolate chip." They said in unison._

"_Of course." Oliver smiled. It was always chocolate chip. Oliver set Anna on the counter top and Ryan slid down his back to the ground. "Pick up some chocolate chips too?" Oliver asked as Chloe gathered her stuff to go to the store._

"_No need." A voice said from the back door of the kitchen as Chase walked in carrying grocery bags. "I knew it was Pancake Day and we were out of milk and eggs so I stopped back on the way from my run." He dropped the bags on the counter and Oliver started unloading them. _

"_Chocolate chips?" He asked._

"_In the bottom." Chase smiled. "I'm gonna shower." _

"_Wow." Chloe set her bag down. "Have we got the best son or what?" _

_  
"I think we just might." Oliver nodded cracking eggs and pouring milk as Anna "helped" him make breakfast. _

Oliver looked around confused, the place looked familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it. "What?" Chloe could see the look on his face.

"I know this place." Oliver said. "Hold on." He watched as Chloe opened the pantry to grab some flour and he smiled. "Wait a minute." Oliver squatted back down. "This is my house."

"You have a house?" Chloe asked.

"My parent's house." Oliver said. "It's been closed up since they died." He pointed to the pantry. "You see that writing right there? That's my growth chart, my mom started it." He looked around the kitchen. "It's been renovated but this is my house." He smiled. "We live here?" Oliver asked Mark.

"You and Chloe." Mark nodded. "And the kids."

"I live here?" Chloe looked around the room. "It's beautiful." She told Oliver.

"You really like it?" Oliver asked pleased.

"Yeah I really do." Chloe nodded.

"You guys are adorable." Mark said. "But I'm trying to watch this." He reminded them that they were still in Oliver's head.

_They made a holy mess as Chloe watched on in amusement. "Ok, chocolate chip time." Oliver turned to Anna who reached for the open bag of chocolate chips that she'd been snacking on since they started cooking, only her reach wasn't quite right and she knocked the bag to the ground. Chloe gasped as chocolate chips went all over the kitchen floor. _

"_I'm sorry." Anna jumped off the counter and started scooping chocolate chips up. Oliver and Chloe followed with Ryan but they weren't picking them up fast enough. Everything would have been fine if Woodward hadn't caught wind of it and come crashing into the kitchen and headed straight for the chocolate. "No." Anna screamed. "Chocolates bad for dogs." _

_Chloe looked over at Oliver and raised her eyebrows. "The pancakes are burning." Ryan called out and Oliver sighed and pulled himself up to grab the skillet. _

"_Ryan sweetie, can you grab Woodward?" Ryan looked over at his mother and gave her an exasperated look and she sighed looking at her 4 foot, 50 lb son and then over at her 200lb monster of a Saint Bernard and sighed, he was right that was never going to work. "Chase." She screamed through the house as she tried to grab the chocolate chips up faster than Woodward could eat them. _

_She glared at the dog and sighed. The kids had found him in a field behind the house one day and brought him home, begging to keep him. They swore that they would take care of him and feed him and walk him and wash him and then he grew. When they took him to the vet to get him checked out she said that he was a full grown long haired terrier. After two months it was evident that the vet was wrong. He was the farthest thing from a full grown long haired terrier, he was in fact a Saint Bernard Puppy and after firing the vet and contemplating getting her license revoked, they discussed getting rid of it but the kids were attached at that point so they adapted. Unfortunately Chase and Oliver were the only ones that had any success in controlling him at all. _

"_He's gonna eat them and he's gonna die." Anna was crying. _

_  
"Honey the amount of chocolate that Woodward would have to eat to make him sick would weigh more than you." Chloe tried to soothe her but she couldn't hear it. "Chase!" Chloe screamed again and her son came sliding in the room only to burst out laughing. "Do something useful and grab the dog." Chloe laughed._

"_Sure thing." Chase grabbed at the dogs collar and dragged him bodily out of the kitchen and herding him into the back yard. He walked back to the kitchen and helped clean up. "What are you guys going to do when I go off to college?" _

"_Oh please." Chloe stood up and dumped her chocolate chips in the trashcan. "Don't mention that today. I already have to go through watching my baby graduate." Chloe grabbed his face and he frowned at her. "Don't make me think about him going off to college." _

"_Mom, you're being a mom." Chase warned her. _

"_Sorry." She sighed and turned around. _

"_Give your mom a break." Oliver turned around and looked at Chase. "She's going through a lot right now." _

"_Oh." Chase nodded. "Is it the menopause?" _

_Chloe walked behind him and slapped him in the head. Oliver and Chase laughed. "Ok mom, seriously though what you're going through? Think about what I'm going through. Not only do I have to worry about not tripping on that stupid gown as I walk across the stage, making sure I don't make a funny face when they take the picture, but also whether or not I'm going to join up with Kevin and Mike and go naked under the robe, which brings about its own set of worries." _

_Chloe turned around. "You wouldn't dare." She looked at him. _

"_Joking mom." Chase held up his hand. _

"_Well." Oliver said loudly to break the tension. "Pancakes are ruined. Who wants IHOP?" _

_All hands went up and Oliver grabbed the car keys as they headed out the door. Forty five minutes later they were sitting around the table at IHOP, stuffing their faces. _

_  
"So Ryan's game is at eleven." Oliver said. _

"_Go Wildcats." Ryan pumped his hands in the air and Chloe sighed._

"_Chew your food dude." Chase pretended to wipe food off his shirt._

"_Sorry." Ryan said taking another big bite. _

"_And Anna's dance class is at two?" Oliver asked as Chloe thought for a minute then nodded. _

"_So we do the game, then dance class, then back home to get ready for Chase's big day." Chloe smiled at him. _

"_I don't want to go to a stupid dance class." Ryan pouted. _

"_Hey I'm going to your stupid game." Anna told him. _

"_Soccer is not stupid." Ryan yelled. "You're stupid." _

"_No you are." _

"_Hey, no one is stupid." Chloe said to the kids and they both shut up. _

"_How about this." Chase said and they all turned to him. "After graduation and the road trip I start my internship at the Daily Planet, so I'm not gonna be around much before school starts so, I'll take Anna somewhere special during Ryan's game, just the two of us, spend some time together would you like that?" _

_Anna beamed and nodded at her big brother. "That's not fair." Ryan pouted. _

"_And then after the game, while Anna has dance class, I'll take you somewhere special." Ryan seemed to perk up then. _

"_I guess that's cool." He shrugged, his wide grin betraying the coolness he was trying to project._

"_Sounds like a plan." Oliver clapped Chase on the back. _

"_So you guys are really doing this road trip thing?" Chloe asked, her voice a little worried. _

"_Of course we are." Oliver looked at Chase. "We've been planning this for years."_

"_California to New York and then back." Chase high fived Oliver. "Dropping me off in Metropolis for the internship." _

"_You two for three weeks in a car together." Chloe said skeptically. "And I don't understand why you can't stay in a hotel for a few nights." _

"_It's a camping trip mom." Chase said. "A hotel would defeat the whole purpose." _

_  
"Yeah we'll live off the land, scavenge like real men." Oliver smiled. _

"_You're staying at state parks." Chloe rolled her eyes. "I doubt there will be much scavenging." _

"_Cook on open flames." Chase said as if Chloe hadn't spoken. "Build shelter to protect us from the elements." _

_  
"That's enough." Chloe laughed. _

"_We'll become one with nature." Oliver chimed in. "Commune with the earth." _

"_No." Chloe glared. "What you'll become is smelly from not showering and you'll probably gain fifteen pounds living off junk food." _

"_I wanna go." Ryan whined_

"_This is a trip for your dad and Chase, when you graduate you and your dad can take your own cross country camping trip." Chloe offered. _

"_He'll be too old then." Ryan pouted and Oliver laughed. _

"_Thanks a lot son." Oliver reached over and ruffled his hair. _

"_Ok, we've got a tight schedule to keep and oh crap I forgot about Woodward. We might not have enough time to run back home and pick him up." Chloe said sadly to Ryan. _

_  
"But mom, he has to be there, he's been at all of my games. He's like my good luck charm." Ryan said. _

_  
"It doesn't hurt that he scares the other kids if they get to close to the goal. I can't believe they let you keep him on the sidelines." Chase pointed out. _

"_We're gonna have to go home anyway to get the other car, don't worry." Oliver assured Ryan. _

"_How come Woodward never comes to my dance recitals?" Anna asked taking a bite of her pancakes._

"_Because your recitals are indoors and they usually don't allow pets indoors. Besides I don't think he'd fit in any of the seats." Chloe explained. _

"_That is true." Anna nodded and went back to her breakfast._

_Oliver's phone beeped and he pulled it out and smiled. "No work on Saturday's." Anna, Ryan, Chloe, and Chase said at the same time. He closed the phone and looked at them. _

"_That was not work." He sipped his coffee. "That was actually a surprise for mom." Chloe put down her fork and turned to Oliver intrigued. "I know that you hate it when I use my name and prestige to gain an unfair advantage in certain situations but I wanted to make sure that I was the first one to know about this." _

"_Know about what?" Chloe asked confused. _

"_Well." He turned to the kids. "You remember a couple of months back when mom was working really late and she had to go out of town a lot?" Anna and Ryan nodded. "She was doing a very important story for the newspaper about this company that was making people very sick."_

"_The cancer thing." Anna said and Oliver nodded. _

"_Yes, the cancer thing." He turned to Chloe. "You editor isn't going to get this for another day or so but…" He let it hang in the air. _

"_But what?" Chase asked. _

"_Well your mom's probably gonna get a raise at work because she just won a Pulitzer." Oliver said. Chloe stared at him for a full minute while Chase jumped up and screamed, the other kids following in his footsteps, not really knowing why. _

"_Are you serious?" Chloe asked. "You're not pulling my leg here, this isn't some big joke?" _

"_No joke, completely serious. You my dear just became a Pulitzer Prize winning author." Oliver smiled as Chloe launched herself into his arms. "That's what people will call you now you know. I think they are legally required to by law. You no longer Chloe Queen, you're Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Chloe Queen." _

"_Mom, that's so awesome." Chase walked over and hugged her. _

"_Thanks." She smiled._

"_Is everything ok over here?" The waitress came over concerned. _

"_Yes, sorry, kids calm down." Chloe took a breath. "We just got some very good news." _

"_Yes we did." Oliver smiled. "We need to get some champagne over here." _

_The waitress smiled, humoring him. "Sir, it's nine in the morning." Oliver frowned. "Also this is IHOP." _

"_So no champagne?" Chloe asked. _

"_No Champagne." The waitress smiled. "Sorry." _

"_Don't worry mom, they always have juice boxes at the soccer game." Ryan smiled. _

"_Then we'll have juice boxes." Oliver kissed Chloe._

"_Ok, we need to get going." Chloe looked around. "Everyone finished?" They all nodded. "Anna do you need to go to the bathroom?" _

"_No." Anna shook her head and jumped down from the table. "Yes." _

"_I got it mom." Chase smiled grabbing her hand. "Come on Anna Banana." _

_The watched the day play out before them. The Wildcat's won their game by 2 points, Chloe and Oliver both had to agree that the win was more highly attributed to Woodward's presence on the sidelines than any sort of particular talents of the players. Anna's dance class was sort of like watching the Russian ballet, if Baryshnikov were an eight year old girl with a still developing sense of balance and beat, and slightly more interested in twirling his hair than learning to pirouette, but it was still great and Chloe wouldn't have traded one second of it for anything in the world. _

_It slowed down again and they were back at the Queen Mansion. Chloe was half jogging half limping down the hall, with only one shoe on, the bottom to one outfit and the top to another and half of her hair still in rollers. "Chloe have you seen Ryan's tie?" Oliver popped his head out of a door and then tried very hard not to laugh at the site of her. "What's going on with this?" He pointed to her outfit. "You're really going for gold in the "embarrassing mom Olympics" aren't you?" _

_Chloe looked down at her clothes and sighed. "I can't decide what to wear and Woodward stole my other shoe and he won't give it back." _

_Oliver put his hands on his hips and looked at Chloe sternly. "You did it again didn't you?" He shook his head. "You know better Chloe." _

"_He's a dog Oliver." Chloe threw her hands up in the air. "He's not a person and he needs to learn that. I let a lot of things slide with him, when he opens the fridge and pulls out his own food, I smile with the rest of you and just buy double meat at the store. When he sits behind your desk in your chair and acts like he's going through your rolodex, I pull out the video camera like any normal person would do. But when he gets into my closet, and starts trying on my clothes, I'm going to yell at him, he's a dog Oliver." _

_  
"You told him that?" Oliver hung his head. "You know how sensitive he is Chloe. You can't say stuff like that to him. You yelled too didn't you?" _

"_I'm not apologizing to the dog." Chloe told him. _

_Oliver raised his eyebrows at her. "How badly do you want to wear those shoes tonight?" _

_Chloe sighed. "Oh for Christ sake." She stomped away down the hall. _

"_Good luck…Ryan's tie?" He called after her, but there wasn't an answer. Oliver turned back to Ryan and shrugged. "Your mom's busy with Woodward at the moment, so we're on our own. Where did you last see the tie?" _

_Ryan rolled his eyes at Oliver. "If I knew that, it wouldn't be lost would it." _

_Oliver groaned. "How come you only have one tie?" He looked in the closet. "I have like seven hundred ties. Ties are important, you can say so much with a tie." _

"_What would I do with more than one tie?" Ryan hopped up on the bed. "I'm ten years old. Mom's lucky if I change my clothes every two days." _

_  
"Point taken." Oliver nodded then grabbed Ryan, throwing him on his shoulder. "I've got this." He walked down the hall. "Your tie was a kids tie anyway, you're not a kid anymore are you?" Ryan shook his head. "You can borrow one of my ties." _

"_You guys aren't dressed yet?" Chase asked nervously passing them in the hallway. "We have to leave in like twenty minutes." _

"_We're getting there, I'm taking Ryan to pick out his first big boy tie." Oliver smiled. _

"_Ok." Chase nodded and started to walk away. "No, no not ok." He ran back to see Oliver and Ryan. "That's not ok." Chase held out his hands and stopped Oliver in his tracks. "I remember when you decided it was time for me to get my first big boy tie, we were at the store for like twelve hours." _

"_Five." Oliver countered._

"_Whatever, it seemed like forever." Chase shook his head. "We don't have time for that so please, just pick a tie, any tie and don't worry about if it says the right thing, or gives the right impression, or has enough green in it." Chase looked at Oliver._

"_Ok, fine, just a tie." Oliver said holding up his hands in defeat. _

"_Have you seen mom?" Chase asked. _

"_She's fighting Woodward for her shoes." Oliver said. _

"_Just a tie." Chase called over his shoulder. _

_Oliver looked up at Ryan who was smirking down at him. "He's a little uptight today isn't he?" Ryan laughed. _

"_Mom!" Chase screamed through the living room. The doorbell rang and he sighed running over to it. He smiled slightly when he saw who was there. _

"_Do you have anything to eat?" Bart asked pushing past him. _

"_Mom left you a plate in the oven." Chase called over his shoulder. "Hey guys." He smiled as Victor, AC, Clark, and Lois walked in the house. Lois stopped and gave him a hug and kiss. "I hate to be the bad host but mom was supposed to pick up my robe, no one's dressed and dad is helping Ryan pick out his first big boy tie." _

_Victor and AC cringed as Bart looked on confused. "I remember when he took me to get my first tie." AC shook his head. _

_  
"Do you know I left him in the store, went and got a coffee, came back and he didn't even notice I'd gone." Victor smiled. _

"_He never took me to pick out a big boy tie." Bart frowned. _

"_That's cause you're not a big boy yet." Victor patted him on his head and walked into the living room. _

"_We can look after ourselves." Lois said. _

"_Thanks." Chase smiled and walked away to find Chloe. He passed his dad's office and then paused and came back. "Mom?" He walked in and frowned. Chloe was sitting in the chair in front of Oliver's desk and Woodward was behind it, sitting straight up as if he were conducting a meeting._

"_Ok, look, I'm sorry, I was a little harsh earlier. That was my favorite red dress and you were stretching it out but I was in the wrong. I could have handled it better, calmer and I apologize." Woodward seemed to almost nod his head at her. "So I've apologized, can I get the shoe back now?" He looked between Chloe and the shoe on the desk and then grabbed the shoe and took off out of the room. "I can't believe it." Chloe groaned and turned around and saw Chase in the doorway. "I'm apologizing to my own dog just to get my shoe back." Chloe told him. _

_Chase was about to comment that Woodward's always been that way and maybe Chloe should stop telling him he was just a dog when he saw what she had on. "Is that what you're wearing?" He asked suddenly. _

"_No, I'm still deciding on what to wear, what are you the fashion police?" Chloe glared at him. _

"_Sorry, you were supposed to pick up my robe?" Chase pointed out to her. _

"_It's in my car." Chloe said. "Did you see which way the dog went?" _

_  
"Mom, we've got to be there in like fifteen minutes, cant you just let him have that one and maybe pick out a different pair of shoes?" Chase said. "Please?" _

"_Fine." Chloe sighed. "But I'm going to have to pick out a whole new outfit now." She called after him. _

"_Lois and the guys are here." Chase called on his way to the garage. _

_Chloe walked into the living room to find only Lois sitting on the couch, Anna sitting opposite her in the chair and the two of them were just staring at each other. "So how's school going?" _

"_Schools out." Anna told her. "It's summer time." _

"_Right." Lois nodded. She'd never felt comfortable around Anna, she was never a girly girl herself and she and Clark had been blessed with three very dirty very rambunctious boys, she didn't know what to do with girls, if a conversation wasn't about worms or dirt or gross things Lois was at a loss. Chloe stopped in the doorway and paused to watch, this could be entertaining. "That's a very pretty dress." Lois said. _

"_It's not a dress." Anna crossed her arms over her chest. Children could sense fear and they were good at exploiting it. "It's a Pretty Fairy Princess dress." Anna corrected her. _

"_Right, sorry." Lois nodded. They were silent for another minute and then Anna got down out of her chair and walked over to Lois. _

"_Can you put my barrette in?" She handed Lois a pink sparkly butterfly looking thing and Lois grabbed it as if it were a dirty rag._

"_Um…." She was trying to figure out how to work it when Chloe decided to put her out of her misery._

"I got it." She walked in the room and then stopped. Sure enough Anna was wearing her Pretty Fairy Princess dress and Chloe sighed. "Anna, sweetie, what happened to the dress that mommy picked out for you?"

"_I wanted to wear this one." Anna pouted. _

"_But this is a dress up dress." Chloe told her. "We don't wear dress up dresses outside, just at home." _

"_But it's Chase's big day and it's my best dress." Anna countered. _

_Chloe didn't want to get into that particular argument with Anna tonight but she also didn't want to make Chase late and she had a sudden thought. "I'll make you a deal, you get my shoe back from Woodward, and you can wear the dress." _

"_Deal." Anna held out her hand and Chloe shook it. _

"_How does this thing even work?" Lois asked staring at the butterfly thing in her hands. _

"_Never mind." Chloe shook her head. "Where's everyone else?" _

"_Helping Oliver help Ryan pick out his first big boy tie." Lois smiled. "Are you wearing that?" Chloe just glared at her. _

"_Does every member of my family think I'm color blind or something?" Chloe groaned. "Come help me pick out an outfit." Chloe said and Lois followed her to the bedroom. Anna arrived a minute later holding Chloe's shoe out and she just looked at her daughter in awe. "How did you get that from him?" _

"_I asked him for it." Anna jumped up on Chloe's bed and they could hear the guys in the closet arguing. _

"_That doesn't say graduation to me." Oliver said. "It says boardroom." _

"_It says tie." Bart complained. "Just like all the other five hundred ties we've gone through." _

_Lois emerged from the closet holding a dress out to Chloe who tilted her head and then decided against it. Chase walked in exasperated. He saw Anna in the Princess dress and decided not to start that argument. "The gown was not in the car." _

_Chloe cringed. "I left it at the office." She said suddenly. _

"_Oh please." Bart zoomed out of the closet. "Please let me go get it. They're on tie nine hundred and seventy three in there." _

"_For Christ sake dad it's just a tie." Chase ran into the closet grumbling and Chloe and Lois started laughing. "Don't think you're off the hook, if you don't pick out something in the next two minutes you are going to be wearing that, curlers and all." _

_Lois and Chloe hurried over to her closet and picked out an outfit. Bart showed up five minutes later with the gown and an ice cream cone and Chase picked a tie at random out of Oliver's closet, tied it around Ryan's neck and when Oliver said that it still wasn't the right tie, Ryan refused to take it off because his big brother had given it to him. "Are we ready to go?" Chloe asked surprised, five minutes to spare as everyone lined up at the door. "Anyone have to pee?" She looked at Ryan and Anna respectively who shook their heads and Bart's hand flew into the air. They all rolled their eyes as he took off down the hall. _

_Chloe double checked that Chase was indeed wearing clothes under his gown and then let him go join his friends. She cried like a baby, took seven hundred pictures, and before she knew it, her son was a graduate. _

_Chloe stood with a half asleep Anna and a fully asleep Ryan in the living room at four a.m. the next morning. "You have to leave so early?" Chloe yawned. "I didn't even have time to make you breakfast." _

"_We'll grab something on the way." Oliver kissed her cheek. _

_She just nodded. "Ok, be safe please." She grabbed Chase's face and peppered him with kisses. _

"_Mom, it's really too early." Chase pulled away from her but he did it with a smile. _

"_Ok, fine." Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. Oliver was about to say his goodbyes when Chloe's phone beeped. She frowned, it was four in the morning. She read the text message and with every line she frowned deeper. _

"_What?" Oliver reached out for her phone and she clutched it to her chest. _

"_Nothing, don't worry about it." Chloe shook her head and plastered on a fake smile. "Ok, you're going to be late." _

"_It's four in the morning and you're acting squirrely." Oliver told her. "What is it?" _

"_Maybe you want to sit down?" Chloe said finally. _

"_Maybe I don't." Oliver shook his head. _

_Chase frowned and Chloe showed him her phone. His face did the opposite of Chloe, instead of frowning, his face broke out into a bigger and bigger grin. "Oh man." Chase said handing the phone back to Chloe. _

"_Seriously you should sit down." Chase smiled. _

"_Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Oliver looked between his wife and son and crossed his arms over his chest. _

"_Brian sent me an e-mail." Chloe bit her lip. "He wanted to see if I had a comment for the Gazette on a story he picked up off the wire." _

"_What story?" Oliver asked._

"_Don't do it." Chase stage whispered out of the corner of his mouth as Chloe handed her cell phone over. _

_Oliver read it once, then twice, then a third time. "Is this a joke?" He finally asked. Chloe shook her head. "Is this a really bad freaking joke?" He screamed, waking up the kids. _

"_Honey, there are children in the house and I'm sure you're too angry right now to spell all the bad words." Chloe pointed out. _

"_I know how to spell the bad words." Ryan piped up and they both looked at him then Oliver turned and walked out the French doors to the porch. They couldn't hear him but they could see him. He was tossing lawn furniture around screaming at the top of his lungs. _

_Anna was squinting out the window and she frowned. "Mom, who's a son of a bitch?" _

_Chase and Chloe turned to Anna. "Where did you hear that?" Chloe asked her. _

"_Daddy just said it." Anna pointed to the yard. _

_Chloe frowned, they couldn't hear Oliver, then she turned on her daughter. "Has Uncle Victor been teaching you to read lips?" _

_Anna nodded excitedly. "He said it's the least inconspicuous way to do surveillance." _

"_He did?" Chloe had to smile. _

"_Is he insane?" Oliver opened the French doors. "Is he crazy because if he's crazy I could sort of understand." Oliver shook his head. "That was his trial run. Bart said he was ready for more responsibility and stupidly I said he could take over when we went on the trip and this is what he does to me?" _

"_What did he do?" Ryan was very interested now. _

"_Do you remember mommy and daddy's other job?" Chloe asked him. "The super secret one?" Ryan and Anna nodded. "You remember the space satellite station?" They nodded again. "Well Uncle Bart was supposed to be in charge of it while your dad and Chase went camping and last night he brought a friend up there, and he was showing off to his friend and he almost accidently started nuclear war with Russia." _

_  
Chase laughed again and Oliver groaned falling onto the couch and slamming his head on the table. "That's not fair." Ryan pouted. "We're not allowed to go to the satellite but Uncle Bart gets to bring friends?" _

"_No, Uncle Bart was definitely not supposed to bring a friend there." Chloe said. _

_  
"If it makes you feel any better I don't think Uncle Bart is going to be allowed up there for a while." Chase chuckled. _

"_Definitely not." Oliver jumped up. "He's grounded until further notice. I need to call him, I need to fix this." _

_  
"I've got this." Chloe assured him. "You two need to leave." _

"_You need to tell him that he's on grunt work until I say he's off." Oliver said walking to the car. "You need to tell him that if he ever, ever pulls a stunt like that again he'll wish he did start a nuclear war with Russia because a bomb will be so much better than what I'm going to do to him."  
_

"_I'm on it." Chloe nodded. _

"_You need to call the Russian Prime Minister and the President and apologize, we need to figure out a way to make up for this." Oliver got in the car. _

"_You know I have run this team before, it used to be all I did." Chloe reminded him. _

"_Right." Oliver smiled weakly. _

_Chloe waited until the car was out of the driveway. She sent a text message to Bart to let him know he was expected to be at her house in ten seconds or less and then dialed another number. "Brian, honey, it's Chloe." She smiled when she heard wind pick up behind her, Bart was there. "Yeah I got your message, look, could you hold off on the story for a day?" She paused and turned to Bart who had the decency to look ashamed. "Yeah I know the wire has it and if you hold off, you'll be the only paper who doesn't print it tomorrow but I can promise you an exclusive if you give me twelve hours." Chloe bit her lip. "You're the best Brian. You know that right?" She hung up the phone. _

"_I'm screwed aren't I?" Bart asked. _

"_Yes." Chloe nodded motioning him into the house. She put the kids back to sleep and sat Bart at the kitchen table. "You're going to sit there while I call who I need to call to make up for this, you're going to do whatever it is I agree to, Charity runs, publicity stunts, if you have to follow the Russian Prime Minister around for a month and carry her purse you will do it." _

"_Yes ma'am." Bart nodded as Chloe started dialing._

"_Mr. President." Chloe smiled. "Yes it is very early." She turned around for a second and when she turned back Bart was sitting in the same spot but he had a bowl of cereal in front of him. "Yes I do know how you were woken up this morning." She glared. "I understand. No I don't think that the JLA has the authority to declare war." She sat down and took a bite of Bart's cereal. "It will definitely not happen again you have my word on that." She smiled. "I'm so glad you mentioned that." Chloe leaned back in the seat. "How about this, I'll set up a meeting with your Communications Director, Press Secretary and your Social Secretary and we'll come up with a list of things for him to do." Bart groaned. "Yes sir, I'm calling Madam Prime Minister as soon as I get off with you. No thank you Mr. President." _

"_A list?" Bart started to whine. _

"_You almost started WWIII." Chloe pointed out to him. _

"_Yes ma'am." He sighed. _

"_Damn right yes ma'am." Chloe dialed another number and started speaking Russian. When she got off the phone the smile on her face made Bart sink even further in his seat. She was about to tell him what he had to look forward to when her phone rang. She answered it without looking. _

"_Hey." Oliver said to her. _

"_Hey." Chloe smiled. "I've called the President and the Prime Minister and we've set up a bunch of things for Bart to do to make up for this." _

"_That's great, thanks, but it's not why I called." Oliver said to her. "I realized that I forgot to say I love you." _

_Chloe smiled. "I love you too." _

"_Is he there?" Oliver asked after a minute. _

"_Yeah, he's here." Chloe said. _

"_Do me a favor, look over at him." Oliver said. Chloe turned her attention to Bart who was sitting up straight and paying attention. "Nod a bit and look solemn." Chloe nodded solemnly and Bart sat further on the edge of his seat. "Does he look scared?" _

"_Yeah." Chloe said trying to keep a straight face. _

"_Ok, now say "really" like you're kind of scared." Oliver told her. _

"_Really?" Chloe asked him and Bart practically fell out of his seat. "Are you sure?" _

"_Oh that's good." Oliver laughed. "Nice improvisation." _

_Chloe turned away from Bart and whispered. "Thank you." She smiled. _

_  
"What is he saying?" Bart asked fearfully. "Is he saying anything? Is he mad?" Chloe turned around. "Should I leave the country?" _

"_Sit." Chloe said. "We're not done yet, we still have to go over what you're going to say to Brain." She turned away again. "You are evil you know that." She told Oliver._

"_I try. Love you." He said._

"_Love you too." Chloe hung up the phone. _


	7. Chapter 7

Oliver and Chloe stood transfixed. "I want that." Oliver whispered, afraid if he spoke too loud he'd break the bubble they seemed to find themselves in. He turned to Chloe the longing in his eyes so powerful it made her catch her breath. "I want that."

"You can have that." Mark said.

"We can?" Chloe spoke for the first time.

"Yeah sure, it might not play out exactly like that, down to the last syllable but barring any dramatic life altering decisions or, you know, bad sushi, you'll get that." Mark nodded.

"I can't do it without you." He told Chloe. "I want that and I'll work my whole life to make sure I have it, but I can't have it unless you're on my side." He smiled at her. "I know I've been sort of a jackass the past couple of days but please tell me you're still on my side."

"You know for such a smart guy, you can be so thick sometimes." Chloe laughed then turned to Mark. "Can I show him something?" Mark nodded and Chloe closed her eyes and thought really hard.

Oliver looked around confused as the background faded and they were transported somewhere else. "This is Star City." He looked over at Chloe. She just nodded her head.

_Chloe walked down the street mumbling to herself. "Arrogant, pig headed, selfish little…" She cut herself off when she bumped into someone and looked up. It was a crowd and they were in an uproar. Somehow she'd made it to the courthouse steps where it seemed Brian Jacobs, Star City's answer to sleaze reporting, was up at the podium. _

"_So we say to you Mr. Mayor it's time you did something about this so called Superhero the Green Arrow." Brian said and the crowd cheered. "You were content to sit idly by and allow him to run your city for you when he was a vigilante but now he's gone too far." The crowd roared again. _

_  
"This can't be good." Chloe whispered. She watched the crowd, unable to believe her eyes. She'd read about this kind of crowd mentality before, she just never thought she'd see one in person. They were chanting now, that couldn't be a good thing. The Salem witch trials probably started that way, the lynching's in the south too. _

"_He lulled us into a false sense of security, made us believe he wanted to help us and now this." He held up that day's paper and with his very own headline. "Green Arrow: Vigilante turned Murderer" The crowd erupted again. "So we challenge you now Mr. Mayor, get serious about the Green Arrow, bring him to justice or we will." _

_Chloe was worried, they seemed only seconds away from swarming the streets with pitchforks and torches. Then worry subsided and she got pissed as they chanted again. She pushed through reporters, news crews, and angry citizens until she reached the podium. She spared an angry glare for Brian Jacobs and then pulled her cell phone out and held it up next to the microphones creating a horrifying screech that effectively shut everyone up. _

"_What is wrong with you people?" Chloe asked, trying to make eye contact with as many in the crowd as she could. "You're standing in front of the court house demanding the bloody severed head of a man who has done so much for you, for this city in the past five years that I can't even…you should be ashamed of yourselves." _

"_And who are you?" Brian asked. _

_She scoffed at him as the crowd hung their heads. "Who cleaned up the parks?" Chloe asked. "Who made them safe for your kids? Ran out the drug dealers and the gangs?" A murmur went through the crowds. "Not the police that's for sure, not the Star City Gazette." Chloe glared at Brian Jacobs. "He loves this city, would do anything for it, and for the people in it and you don't even know." She shook her head. "Just think for a minute if any of this makes any sense? The Green Arrow, the one you know, wouldn't do this. He wouldn't steal from you, he would never kill. You know this, you have to." Chloe said. _

_  
"What about the witness?" Someone screamed. _

_  
"Exactly." Brian said smugly. "There was a man that said he saw the Green Arrow kill that man with his own two eyes." _

"_Did you even talk to him?" Chloe shook her head in exasperation. "I did. He said he saw someone in a Green Arrow costume kill that man." She shrugged. "He said he'd seen the Green Arrow before and this guy looked shorter and kind of chunkier than the real thing." She laughed. "I could go two blocks over and buy enough green leather to make my own costume, does that make me the killer?" _

_Brian laughed. "So you're saying he was framed?" _

"_Impersonated." Chloe shook her head. "Copied and badly. You're a self proclaimed Green Arrow expert Mr. Jacobs. Has he ever been seen with a knife?" _

_Brian frowned and shook his head. "No, he's always seen with a bow and arrow." _

"_And how was Frank Rubio killed." Chloe asked. _

"_Stabbed." Brian acquiesced, his own conviction wavering. _

"_Does that sound right to you?" Chloe asked the crowd. They all shook their heads. "The Green Arrow is secretive yes but for good reasons. He's operating around the law because the law isn't operating. He can be…" She shook her head. "Stubborn and cocky and completely infuriating at times but he's also got conviction and a sense of justice and a heart that wants nothing more than to keep his people, his town safe." _

"_You speak as if you know him." Brian said. _

_Chloe turned to him and smiled. "Better than you could imagine." Chloe sighed. "But not as good as I thought I did." She turned to walk away. _

"_Miss." Brian ran after her. "Hold on, wait just a second. If you know the Green Arrow and you know he didn't do this why didn't you come forward? I could have your story on the front page of the paper tomorrow morning." _

"_No thank you." Chloe shook her head. _

"_Come on, I can pay you for the story, what do you want?" He asked. _

_  
"You're the one who writes all the Green Arrow stories aren't you?" Chloe asked him. He nodded. "You know what I want?" Chloe asked. "I want you to buy a dictionary or at least use your spell check." Chloe told him._

"_I'm sorry?" Brian asked confused. _

"_Yes you are." Chloe nodded. "Look, I've read your column. I check in on it once in a while hoping that somehow your writing has gotten better. I want you to buy a globe. Iran is bordered on two sides by water, not just one. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not interchangeable countries so don't treat them like that. A Thesaurus wouldn't go amiss either because in your article yesterday you used the word good twelve times; do you know how many different words with more than two syllables there are for good? Come on, you went to UCLA, did they not make you take a few writing classes?" _

"_Excuse me…" He tried to interrupt her. _

_  
"It's not just your vocabulary and sentence structure and bad grammar that bothers me, that's really your editor's fault. It's the complete lack of quality of your writing. You'll print anything whether it's from a reliable source or whether you heard it from a wino on the street outside your apartment. It's like you forgot about that "investigative" part of investigative reporter. Seriously do you just sit at your desk and make up stories just to fill print space? You've written over seventy stories in the past three years on the Green Arrow and not only have they been boring, which is something that's hard to do when you're writing about a masked vigilante, but I haven't been able to find a single thing in a single article that has any facts to back it up." _

_He glared at her and she softened slightly. "It took me two minutes to unravel your whole story back there and I wasn't even trying. Dig into the story, try actually taking to witnesses, do some background. Write better." Chloe sighed. "So to answer your question, even if I was to tell my story, it would not be to you." She walked away leaving Brian there his jaw grinding, his hands clenched into fists. _

Oliver smiled at the scene when everything started to fade, it was like his vision was going black. "What's happening?" He asked in a panic.

"You're done." Mark said. "You've seen what you needed to see. It's time to go back to the real world."

"Where's Chloe?" He looked around but couldn't see her.

"She'll be waiting for you." Mark assured him.

* * *

Chloe gasped sitting up on the bed and looked around confused. Two seconds ago she'd been on the street in Star City and now she was lying on Oliver's bed in his apartment. "She's awake." Bart screamed jumping out of his chair as Victor ran into the room. "Chloe, are you ok? What the hell happened?"

"I got sucked in." Chloe said. "I got to see…I got to see the most amazing things, and the most horrible things." She frowned.

"But you're ok?" Victor asked.

"I'm fine." She assured him then remembered something. "Oliver, I never finished healing him, is he ok?" She jumped up and smiled when she heard him screaming from the other room.

"I'm fine you need to stop touching me. Someone better pick up those nacho's and the beer." Oliver warned. "Where the hell is Chloe?"

She ran out of the bedroom and paused when she saw him straightening his shirt. He looked up at her and smiled. "Hey." He said sheepishly.

"Hey." Chloe nodded at him then couldn't hold it any longer. She ran full pelt straight for him and he pulled her up into his arms, spinning her around as he laughed. When he set her down again she reached up and kissed him.

"Whoa." Bart stared at the two of them. "What the hell did they see in there?"

Mark just smiled and clapped him on the back.

"The last thing I showed you, it was four hours ago." Chloe told him. "Right after I left your apartment. And yeah I was pissed at you and I thought you were being an enormous Jackass, but seriously, I'm always on your side." She assured him. "We can do this, we can have that." Chloe promised him and then paused. She turned to Mark. "Will we remember everything? Because I'm not sure I want to know."

"It'll fade in time, soon all you'll be left with is the feeling, the knowledge of what you should do and what should be." Mark assured her.

Chloe nodded and turned back to Oliver. "Oh!" She grabbed his shirt and pulled it out of his pants. "I almost forgot! Your stab wound. I never finished healing you."

"I'm thinking maybe we should wait until we're in private before the undressing starts don't you?" Oliver smiled down at her.

"It's very faint." Victor told her. "I think you did just enough before you passed out."

Chloe ran her finger across the very faint scratch along Oliver's abs. "Ok, really you keep doing that and I'm going to have to be rude and kick everyone out." He whispered pulling her hand from his chest as she blushed.

"So are we still fired?" Bart spoke up.

Oliver pulled Chloe against his chest into a hug as she laughed. "No one's fired."

"Yes." Bart jumped in happiness. They all turned to look at him. "I have to be able to support the lifestyle to which I've become accustomed and I just don't think that getting a job as Starbucks would have cut it."

"No more midlife crisis or whatever it was you were going through?" AC asked.

"Almost." Oliver said. "There's just one thing I need to do before I can put that all behind me." Chloe looked up at him confused. The last time she'd heard that from Oliver, he went on to kill Lex. "I'm going to need your help."

"Yeah sure, anything you need." Chloe said to him.

"And this…" Victor pointed between the two of them. "This is new, I'm assuming we're just gonna have to get used to it."

"Pretty much." Oliver nodded.

"Ok, then." Victor smiled. "I can work with that."

* * *

Chloe looked over at her team and felt a sigh of relief that everything was back to normal. "What's the plan?" Victor asked. "Do we have a plan? Are we actually going to get him tonight?"

"We're hoping." Oliver strapped his bow to his back.

"You'll call me when you know something?" Chloe asked as they headed out of the apartment.

"You'll be the first." He assured her. "Are you sure about your end of all this?"

"Positive." Chloe nodded. "Trust me."

"With my life." Oliver smiled, kissing her softly.

"Ok, ok." Bart walked right through Chloe and Oliver pushing them apart. "I'm not as cool as everybody else with this whole thing just yet so why don't we cool it on the PDA for a while huh?"

Oliver groaned as Bart walked past them to the car. "I got it." Chloe assured Oliver and walked over to Bart. "I get this was sort of sprung on you."

"So you really saw something in there that made you sure he's the one?" Bart asked her.

"Without a doubt." Chloe nodded.

"That's he's going to make you happy?" Bart asked and Chloe looked over at Oliver and nodded. "Ok." Bart conceded, and with that one word he told Chloe he was going to be ok with it. "You mind if I give him a hard time for a few more days about it though?"

"Be my guest." Chloe laughed.

"So what did you see about me?" Bart asked. "Obviously I'm a pretty big part of your life, so I had to be in your future right."

"You were there." Chloe assured him.

"I was awesome huh?" Bart puffed up his chest.

"You were…" Chloe paused. Over the past few days she had slowly been forgetting the details of what happened, just like Mark said she would, she remembered most of it still but some things were slipping away. Something nagged at Chloe's memory. "Bart, in the future, should we ever expand the JLA into an orbiting satellite space station, and should you ever be left in charge of it, do me a favor, don't bring girls up there to impress them and whatever you do, don't push any buttons that could accidently start a nuclear war with Russia." Bart raised his eyebrows at her as if not fully believing what she'd just said.

"You're serious?" Bart asked her and Chloe nodded.

"Ok, first of all." Bart smiled at her. "I don't need an orbiting satellite space station, coolest idea ever by the way, to impress girls. Second of all you should know me well enough by now to know that you should never put me in charge of anything that has buttons that could start a nuclear war. Come on now Chloe."

"Point taken." Chloe smiled.

"Ok, girls are we done with the tender moment? We've got business to attend to." Oliver called from across the room.

Bart nodded at Chloe and ran to catch up.

"Eyes and ears open guys, I think we've got a live one." Bart's voice came over the comms. "Heading south down Prime Street at Seventh Avenue."

"We're on our way." Oliver called back. The guys had been spreading themselves across the city night after night and finally they had a sighting. They converged on the corner of Prime and Seventh and Oliver saw Bart watching something a few blocks ahead.

"Straight ahead." Bart nodded at Oliver and passed his binoculars over. "Badly constructed Green Arrow costume and all."

"That's our guy." Oliver passed the binoculars down the row, staring down the street at the Green Arrow imposter.

"What do you want to do?" Victor asked. "Follow him home, figure out who he is?"

"I don't think we're going to get that luxury." AC said calling everyone's attention to the imposter. He'd spotted an old lady coming down the street and if he stuck to pattern, he wasn't going to let her pass without incident.

"Let's go." Oliver said.

The old woman reached him before Oliver could and just as they assumed he couldn't let her pass. He lunged for her purse but she wasn't going to give it up so easily. She held on tight to the purse straps and had no intention of letting go. When Oliver and the guys reached the mouth of the alleyway they watched for a minute as the old woman gave the imposter what for. She managed to pull the purse out of his hands and then attacked him with it, voicing her distaste with every blow. "You should be ashamed of yourself." She was screaming. "Stealing an old ladies purse, an old defenseless lady."

"I'm not sure I would call you defenseless." Oliver called out.

She stopped hitting the man long enough to look up into the mouth of the alley. "Well." She breathed out. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to do your job?" She put her hands on her hips.

"You heard the lady." Oliver nodded and AC, Victor, and Bart took a step forward. The Green Arrow imposter realized what was happening and took off down the alley. Oliver held out his hand as Victor started after him. "Let him run a bit, it's more fun that way." After a minute he nodded and Victor and AC took off. "Impulse, try a normal speed huh, give him a fighting chance?"

"Can't make any promises Boss." Bart smiled then sped out of the alley.

"Ma'am." Oliver nodded his head at the old woman. "May I walk you home?"

"Thank you." She smiled up at him and pulled her purse higher on her shoulder. Oliver let her lead the way and she turned out of the alley and down Prime Street. "I knew it wasn't you." She said, turning to look over at Oliver. "I knew you didn't kill that guy."

"Thanks." Oliver said.

"Don't get me wrong, I think you're all a little weird you know." She shrugged. "Running around town in leather costumes playing cops and robbers like children who never bothered to grow up, but you can't argue about what you've done for this city."

Oliver didn't say anything for a while and they walked in silence. "How did you know?" Oliver asked her. "That it wasn't me?"

"This guy was an armature." She explained.

"How so?" Oliver chuckled.

"He broke into jewelry stores and people's houses." She scoffed. "That's not your style."

"You know what my style is?" Oliver asked her surprised.

"I'm an old lady, there's not many hobbies to do at my age unless you want to learn to knit or play Gin. I don't wear sweaters and I'm rubbish at cards so instead I followed your career. The first heist you ever did was the Museum in Russia where you stole that samurai sword that was returned three days later to its rightful owner in Japan. There were the Swiss crowned jewels, the original manuscript of Beowolf, and then all the stolen items that miraculously appeared back at the museums where they were stolen from, the Met, the Tate."

"You have followed my work." Oliver said impressed.

"Oh, my favorite, the heist at the Israel Museum. 80 works of art taken from the Jews by the Nazi's all eighty stolen in one night and brought back where they belonged." She smiled at him.

"That one was tricky. It's not easy to steal 80 pieces of art in one night." Oliver assured her. "I don't always steal to give back you know."

"Yeah but it's not just the altruistic nature of your thievery." She told him. "It's the class with which you do it. Every place this guy's broken into, the cops have swarmed it five minutes later. He brakes windows, he sets off alarms." She shook her head. "Three years ago the Louvre announced that it created the most invulnerable security system known to man, you broke in, signed your name to the glass display case with glow in the dark paint, just because you could and they didn't even notice for three days."

Oliver smiled and puffed out his chest a little. "That one was pretty fun actually, you know what the trick was?" He was about to tell her when he heard a voice in his ear.

"We've got him." Victor said.

"Wait for instructions from Watchtower." Oliver said back.

"This is my stop." The old woman smiled. "Thanks for walking me home. Keep doing what your doing, no matter what they say."

"Yes ma'am." Oliver nodded before walking away and pulling out his phone. "You're on Watchtower."

* * *

Brian Jacobs paced in front of the courthouse steps checking his watch while he mumbled. "Courthouse, 15 minutes, be there, come alone." He sighed then yawned.

"Did I wake you?" Chloe looked at her watch. It was two a.m.

Brian spun around quickly. "You know, I was wishing it would be you." He put his hands in his pockets.

"Well if wishes were horses, something would…" Chloe shook her head. "I never learned the end of that."

"Beggars would ride." Brian told her.

"Really?" Chloe sighed. "You learn something new every day."

"You do." Brian nodded at her. "I learned something today. I tried some of that investigating that you were talking about earlier. You know your old column at the Daily Planet ran your by-line with a photo. Chloe Sullivan."

"Nice to meet you." She shook his hand.

"Editor of your high school paper, actually pretty much everything of your high school paper." He continued.

"Oh we're doing the bio now?" Chloe asked confused.

"Internship at the Daily Planet, then your own column when you were just fifteen years old. It didn't last long from what I hear, got yourself on the wrong side of Lionel Luther. You did a brief stint at the Met U paper before rejoining the Daily Planet and then one day you just, disappeared."

"I've been a pretty busy girl in case you couldn't tell. Wanted a vacation." Chloe shrugged.

"You hid yourself very well for a vacation." Brian said. "Texas, Oregon, Washington and more. Six different apartments under six different names over the past few years."

Chloe glared at him this time. "Color me impressed."

"Great, I can die happy now." Brian scoffed at her. "You want to tell me why you called me out here in the middle of the night."

"It's hardly the middle of the night." Chloe shook her head. "What do you go to bed at like eight?" He stared at her. "You'll see in just a minute." Chloe shrugged. "Let's talk about you now. I was a little hard on you earlier."

"A little?" Brian asked. "You're over five years younger than me and you basically compared my entire career to nothing more than the badly written journal entries of a barely literate teenager."

"I wouldn't say barely literate." Chloe said. "Maybe mostly literate."

"You know I was thinking about pitching a story to my editor." Brian smiled at her. "About a semi-talented, albeit much less than she believes herself to be, reporter who disappears off the face of the earth only to pop up in the middle of Star City."

Chloe frowned. "Ok, but I'm failing to see how anyone would want to read that story."

"Oh, I'm sure knowing the pains you went through to keep yourself hidden, that someone, somewhere would want to read it." Brian told her.

Chloe stared at him for a second, almost as if him threatening her, rose him in her esteem. "I see what you're doing here. We're playing hardball now. That's fine, it just so happens I came to the table with something to offer."

"Is that so?" Brian sat down on the bottom step and patted the seat next to him and Chloe sat down.

"How about you don't print that story and I take you under my wing, show the ropes, make you into the reporter I'm sure is hiding in there somewhere." Chloe smirked at him.

"Wow, despite how appealing your condescension is." Brian thought. "I'm going to have to pass."

"Ok, I'll sweeten the pot." Chloe said. "I'll add in the exclusive rights to the story of the capture of the Green Arrow Imposter."

"How are you going to swing that one?" Brian asked. Chloe nodded for him to look ahead and he turned to find Oliver, AC, Bart, and Victor standing in front of him with a man dressed as the Green Arrow, his hands tied behind his back. "Wow, that was good timing."

"We practiced." Chloe shrugged.

"Good job." Brian said turning back to her.

"I want you to meet Sal Parker." Chloe said. "Petty thief, recently turned murderer when his partner, Frank Rubio tried to cheat him out of his share. Frank by the way was the one who came up with the whole Green Arrow impersonator bit."

"I think you owe someone an apology." Victor said pointedly.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong about you." Brian said to Oliver who just nodded at him. "Look this is all very interesting, but I'm still not sure the pot is sweet enough. Maybe I write that story and maybe someone else gives me something better."

"Ok. It was nice almost doing business with you." Chloe held out her hand and Oliver pulled her up to a standing position. She was getting ready to walk away, play hardball, when something clicked in her head. Another bit of memory that was almost forgotten and she turned to Brian. "Your name's Brian, and you're a reporter for the Star City Gazette."

"Are we doing my bio now?" Brian asked confused.

Chloe smiled remembering the Brian that she got a text from in her possible future. "Ok, you drive a hard bargain Brian. You put that story in a drawer and you get access to me and all my infinite reporters wisdom, you also get the exclusive. And you're my first call."

"Your first call?" Brian asked. "What does that mean?"

"When something happens with these guys." She nodded her head to the team behind her. "You get the quote, the only quote, you get their side of the story."

He looked between Chloe and the guys. "You're giving me exclusivity to the Green Arrow and his team? What are you, their PR person?" He scoffed.

"Something like that." Chloe smiled. "What do you say? You can be the official reporter for the Green Arrow, that's a pretty sweet pot right?"

"I'm definitely intrigued." Brian held a hand out to her then pulled it away. "You want to throw in why you worked so hard to keep yourself hidden?"

"Why don't we take this one step at a time." Chloe offered. "Deal?"

"Deal." Brian shook her hand.

"Brian." Chloe put an arm over his shoulder. "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

* * *

The next morning Chloe finished reading her paper long before the others and she waited to see their reactions, she wasn't disappointed. "You have got to be kidding me." AC scoffed tossing his paper to the table. The front page Headline read, "Green Arrow Vindicated, Impersonator Brought To Justice."

"No, he really wrote that." Victor shook his head.

"Hold on, I'm not done yet." Bart scolded them. They waited another few minutes and then he put the paper down. "That jerk."

They all nodded. "It wasn't so bad." Chloe shrugged sipping her coffee.

"It wasn't so bad?" Victor laughed. "Anyone reading this article would assume that Brian caught the guy single handedly. He barely mentions the Green Arrow, there's nothing in there about us."

"Yeah but his sentence structure could finally pass for proper English, and he used the word Perspicacity. He didn't really use it correctly, but it had more than two syllables so that's a good start at least."

"He made half of it up." AC said.

"We'll work on that." Chloe said. "He's a little rough around the edges, but trust me, this guy's gonna be good for us, I just know it." They all looked at her dubiously.

Oliver walked out of his bedroom and stopped when he saw everyone crowded around his table. "You know guys, people start to get suspicious when you hang around my place all the time."

"Yeah well, if you'd set up that home base for us like you keep talking about, we wouldn't have to hang around here." Victor told him.

"I'm working on it." Oliver poured himself a cup of coffee.

"We'll get a home base one day." Bart said. "Maybe something cool like an orbiting satellite space station or something."

"An orbiting satellite?" AC looked at Bart as if he were crazy. "You've been reading comic books again haven't you?"

"I'm serious." Bart said glancing at Chloe who just smiled, the others looked dubious. "Ok, I'll bet you five hundred bucks that one day the three of us will be sitting around a table, drinking coffee, inside a satellite that's orbiting the earth."

"I'll take that bet." Victor nodded at him.

"Me too." AC laughed.

"All right, fine. But one day you'll be sorry." Bart sipped his coffee.

Chloe stood up and walked over to Oliver. "He's gonna make a killing." Oliver pointed out. "Then again if I hadn't seen what we saw, I'd take that bet too."

"So what's next?" Chloe asked him.

"Next?" Oliver sighed. "Next I think it's time for you to move again."

"I was just getting used to…where the hell was I living?"

"Portland." Oliver laughed.

"Right Portland." Chloe said. "I had good neighbors, well strange neighbors but strange can be good. Fine where am I moving this time?"

"I was thinking Star City, Queen Tower, Penthouse." Oliver turned to gauge her reaction.

"Rule number one was that I could never come home." Chloe pointed out.

"Well, I'm thinking of doing away with the rules, they didn't really do any good and I think letting you go was where I went wrong the first time around." Oliver told her. "I need you around to keep me on track."

"Ok, but I need to be Chloe Sullivan again, whatever happens with Lex we'll deal with it, together, but I'm ready to be myself." Chloe told him.

"I can work with that." Oliver nodded.

"So we're getting rid of all the rules?" Chloe asked as if it was a really bad idea.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing it's just there are quite a few rules that were put into place simply because of Bart." Chloe pointed out. "Remember the "Always wear pants even if it's three in the morning and you're only going on a burrito run and you move so fast that no one can see you anyway" rule or the "No eating food in the bathtub" rule and countless others." She paused. "All involving food come to think of it.

"Right." Oliver nodded. "So maybe we just do away with Rule number one."

"Maybe just that one." Chloe agreed.

"So." Oliver sipped his coffee. "I hear Brian Jacobs caught the Green Arrow Impersonator single handedly. Solved the case, all by himself."

"Yeah, we're working on that." Chloe shrugged.

"Do you think I could give you a kiss, or is Bart still being a little girl about everything?" Oliver set his cup down.

"Bart just won a thousand dollars because of me, he can get over it." Chloe reached up and kissed him.

* * *

Twenty Years Later

Oliver was having a good dream, a very good dream actually, it involved Chloe, her tongue, lots of whipped cream and…he sniffed, bacon? He opened his eyes and groaned at the very large dog that was currently alternating between licking his neck and breathing his lovely dog food breath right into Oliver's nostrils. "Woodward." Oliver shoved the dog off of his chest and sighed. He heard laughter from the doorway and looked up to see Chloe standing there with two cups of coffee. "You could have pulled him off." Oliver groaned sitting up as she brought the coffee over to him.

"You looked like you were enjoying it." Chloe teased him.

"It's too early for this." He leaned over and kissed her softly. "The kids up?" Chloe tilted her head to the living room and Oliver heard the unmistakably familiar music of some cartoon show getting louder and louder. "It's Saturday, Pancake Day and that's your specialty not mine so rise and shine."

"I'll be there in five." Oliver said.

"That's fine, I've got to run down to the market and pick up some eggs and milk anyway." Chloe kissed him one last time then left as Oliver stood and tried to wake up a little more. "Hey kids, dad's having some trouble waking up this morning, why don't you go help him out."

Oliver barely had time to groan before two small kids came screaming in the room and jumping on him. He laughed as they dragged him down to the mattress. "Come on dad, it's a big day today. I've got soccer and Anna's got dance and Chase is graduating, we need sustenance."

"Sustenance really?" Oliver looked at his ten year old son and smiled.

"Yeah." Ryan faltered slightly. "It means food right?"

"Right." Oliver assured him. "I'm up, I'm up. Come on let's head to the kitchen. Who wants to help today?" Anna raised her hand frantically and Oliver laughed.

"Alright Anna Banana." He bent down and lifted her up. He turned to walk out of the room when he almost fell forward as something slammed into his back. He caught himself quickly and realized that something was Ryan.

"Piggy back." He said happily and Oliver rearranged Anna so he could carry the both of them.

"What kind of pancakes do you guys want?"

"Chocolate chip." They said in unison.

"Of course." Oliver smiled. It was always chocolate chip. Oliver set Anna on the counter top and Ryan slid down his back to the ground. "Pick up some chocolate chips too?" Oliver asked as Chloe gathered her stuff to go to the store.

"No need." A voice said from the back door of the kitchen as Chase walked in carrying grocery bags. "I knew it was Pancake Day and we were out of milk and eggs so I stopped back on the way from my run." He dropped the bags on the counter and Oliver started unloading them.

"Chocolate chips?" He asked.

"In the bottom." Chase smiled. "I'm gonna shower."

"Wow." Chloe set her bag down. "Have we got the best son or what?"

"I think we just might." Oliver nodded cracking eggs and pouring milk as Anna "helped" him make breakfast. They made a holy mess as Chloe watched on in amusement. "Ok, chocolate chip time." Oliver turned to Anna and suddenly Chloe had the strongest memory of this very day, this very morning, like de ja vu only much, much stronger and then she realized what it was. She'd seen this before, twenty years ago, she and Oliver had seen this day before. She knew in about thirty seconds that Anna was going to knock to the chocolate chips to the ground and spin the morning into chaos. She looked up at Oliver to warn him but by the expression on his face he knew it too, he remembered. She opened her mouth to say something and then stopped. That day, the one she remembered, with all the chaos and all the mishaps, was perfect just the way it was, she didn't want to change a thing. She shook her head at Oliver who'd had the same thought she had and they sat back and watched as Anna knocked the chocolate chips to the ground and they scattered all over the floor.

"I'm sorry." Anna jumped off the counter and started scooping chocolate chips up. Oliver and Chloe followed with Ryan but they weren't picking them up fast enough and in came Woodward, attracted by the smell of the chocolate. "No." Anna screamed. "Chocolates bad for dogs."

As they cleaned up the kitchen and waited for the kids to get dressed so they could go to IHOP. Chloe turned to Oliver. "You remembered?" She asked.

"Yeah." Oliver smiled.

"So we don't change anything?" She dumped the ruined pancakes in the trash.

"Nothing I'd want to change." Oliver smiled down at her. They both remembered what the day had in store for them, then almost at the same time their eyes went wide.

"Bart!" Chloe and Oliver said together.

"I'll call him." Chloe wiped her hands and pulled out her cell phone. "I'll call him right now."

"Wait." Oliver grabbed her hand and lowered the phone. "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt." Oliver told her and Chloe looked at him astonished. "You warned him, twenty years ago, he says he's grown up enough to take the responsibility, let's give him the chance."

"So far, the days played out exactly as it did when Mark showed us. Baring any life altering decision or you know, bad sushi, Bart's gonna almost declare nuclear war on Russia tonight."

Oliver shrugged. "Almost is the key word there. Besides, I got a second chance, let's give him one."

"Your call." Chloe shrugged.

"What's taking you guys so long?" Chase ran in the kitchen. "The natives are getting restless."

"Who wants pancakes?" Oliver smiled walking to the door.

"You coming mom?" Chase asked her.

Chloe looked at her eldest son. He'd graduate later tonight, everyone would be there, one of the best nights of her life. Bart may or may not attempt to start WWIII with Russia but in the mean time Ryan had a soccer game, Anna had a dance class, she had a Pulitzer to win and there were Chocolate Chip Pancakes to be eaten. "Yeah I'm coming." She looped her arm in Chases and walked to the door. Life was good.

* * *

Author's Note: That's it, hoped you like it. I've got another one that should be coming up pretty soon, it's practically completely finished. Hope you liked it and come back for more soon.


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